Free Republic

Carney announces that now the CR and Debt Ceiling have gone Obama's way, the president is putting "immigration reform" back on the front burner. "It's the right thing for America."

Once the fiscal crisis has been resolved, President Barack Obama is going to push for immigration reform, he told the Los Angeles affiliate of Spanish-language network Univision on Tuesday. Obama, who largely managed to hold on to office on the backs of Hispanic voters, has long looked to easing the plight of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants, but other issues have kept coming in the way during his second term.

President Obama vowed Tuesday that he would pursue an immigration reform vote in the House the "day after" Congress reached an agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. "Once that’s done, you know, the day after -- I’m going to be pushing to say, call a vote on immigration reform," Obama told Univision's Los Angeles affiliate. "And if I have to join with other advocates and continue to speak out on that, and keep pushing, I’m going to do so because I think it’s really important for the country. And now is the time to do it."

Investigations underwayAir India said Tuesday an investigation was underway after a passenger found worms in his sandwich mid-flight. The passenger made the discovery during a flight from New York to New Delhi on September 28 on India's struggling flagship carrier. The passenger reported the incident to Air India, but said he did not hear anything back for two weeks, according to the Press Trust of India. "We are investigating the caterer regarding this incident," airline spokesman Prasad Rao told AFP in New Delhi. The spokesman said the airline maintained high standards, including hygiene conditions, adding that this was a "very...

On July 8, 2013, the pro-PRC Chinese-language newspaper, Wenweipo, published an article titled “????50????????? (Six Wars China Is Sure to Fight In the Next 50 Years)�. The anticipated six wars are all irredentist in purpose – the reclaiming of what the Chinese believe to be national territories lost since Imperial China was defeated by the Brits in the Opium War of 1840-42. That defeat, in the view of Chinese nationalists, began China’s “Hundred Years of Humiliation.� Below is the English translation of the article, from a Hong Kong blog, Midnight Express 2046. (The year 2046 is an allusion to what this blog believes will be the last year...

“As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” writes Liu Chang in Xinhua, China’s official news outlet. But can China build a de-Americanized world? Can China lead the global economy? As we wrote in previous pieces, the answer is most likely not, as China lacks four conditions that make its economic growth sustainable. First, China...

Indian treatment methods could hold the key to the survival of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) that still offers mostly free medical care to all patients, irrespective of the income they earn. India’s use of production-line methods to conduct cataract operations has been cited as a way of saving massive UK surgery costs that will otherwise contribute to a looming cash crisis. British medical professionals say during cataract operations in India, simpler tasks are given to cheaper staff with qualified surgeons carrying out only the most complex part of the procedure. “This is not poor quality care, this is genuinely...

Canada’s largest technology company has, until this month, maintained a low profile in the United States. Unlike, say, Blackberry, mentioning CGI Federal at a cocktail party hasn’t tended to elicit strong opinions or emotional heat. After all, it’s a Canadian IT company. That shroud of gentle anonymity has dissipated, however. America is now officially pissed off at Montreal-based CGI, and the company is hunkering down under a barrage of questions — including the one asked on air by a CNBC host: “Should we immediately go to war with Canada over the CGI thing?” The “thing” is the error-plagued national website...

Not a single resident of President Barack Obama's home state of Hawaii has signed up for Obamacare, reports CBS's D.C. affiliate. Hawaii officials say Obamacare's nationwide website failures have prevented the state's citizens from accessing even basic premium and healthcare plan information. Coral Andrews, executive director of the state's Obamacare "Health Connector" exchange, said she does not know when Hawaii will be able to relaunch its busted Obamacare exchange.

Some state governments are willing to hire offshore IT service providers to work on healthcare IT projects under controversial contracts that don't bar use of temporary foreign labor, or workers on H-1B visas. Two multimillion-dollar government healthcare IT projects, one in Illinois and the other in the District of Columbia, illustrate what's going on. In Illinois, Cognizant was awarded a $74.1 million contract in June to upgrade the state's Medicaid systems to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. In January, the District of Columbia awarded Infosys a $49.5 million contract to develop a...

The Obamacare Sode said to be utter trash by several IT guys CLICK LINK AT OWN RISK! https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/global/en_US/registration.js

The new health-care exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, have been in the news lately. And not in a good way. The system has been overwhelmed with traffic and plagued by bugs. Who built the system? And why are they having so many problems? Read on to find out. What do the Obamacare exchange websites do? The exchanges are online marketplace where millions of Americans who don't receive health insurance from their employers will be able to purchase coverage. The system is designed to work like any other e-commerce site. Users can...

t’s been one full week since the flagship technology portion of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) went live. And since that time, the befuddled beast that is Healthcare.gov has shutdown, crapped out, stalled, and mis-loaded so consistently that its track record for failure is challenged only by Congress. The site itself, which apparently underwent major code renovations over the weekend, still rejects user logins, fails to load drop-down menus and other crucial components for users that successfully gain entrance, and otherwise prevents uninsured Americans in the 36 states it serves from purchasing healthcare at competitive rates – Healthcare.gov’s primary purpose....

Yesterday, Jan Crawford told CBS This Morning that the launch of the ObamaCare exchanges have been “nothing short of disastrous,” but it’s worth noting a day later. Why? Despite the efforts to take down and revamp the Healthcare.gov website, nothing has changed — not the performance, not the promises, and not the administration’s refusal to release any of the stats on enrollees on Day 10 House Republicans reminded IRS ObamaCare chief Sarah Ingram Hall during a hearing later yesterday on ObamaCare implementation that they wanted a delay all along, while Hall insisted that everything was hunky-dory on her end: House...

Problems plaguing online enrollment in ObamaCare are not just due to high traffic, but are being compounded by structural problems at healthcare.gov, the federal government portal where people can shop for medical insurance. The Obama administration is now scrambling to fix technical troubles that contributed to a bruising debut last week for the new insurance marketplaces. “I think there’s growing consensus that it’s not just volume,” said Caroline Pearson, a vice president at the consulting firm Avalere Health who focuses on the healthcare law. Healthcare.gov — the main portal for consumers in 36 states to compare their coverage options —...

Just for fun, I tried to create an Obamacare account at Healthcare.gov this morning. At 6:48 AM CDT, I had no trouble getting in. Things were going swimmingly . . . until it came time to choose security questions and provide answers. As you'll see from the screengrab, I was informed that my account could not be created because "two or more answers to the security questions cannot be the same. You must provide distinct answers to the chosen security questions." President Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, or anybody else out there, please tell me, which of the following words are the...

The government's new health insurance marketplaces are drawing lots of rotten tomatoes in early reviews, but people are at least checking them out. Seven percent of Americans report that somebody in their household has tried to sign up for insurance through the health care exchanges, according to an AP-GfK poll. While that's a small percentage, it could represent more than 20 million people. Three-fourths of those who tried to sign up reported problems, though, and that's reflected in the underwhelming reviews. Overall, just 7 percent of Americans say the rollout of the health exchanges has gone well. Far more deem...

A top House Republican says in an upcoming interview that the chamber will take up immigration reform in 2013, insisting that “there’s still time” for a comprehensive rewrite despite the rapidly dwindling time left on this year’s calendar. Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said during an interview with Univision’s “Al Punto” that top leaders are still discussing when to bring immigration bills to the House floor. Speaker John Boehner “over the last few weeks has continued to talk about the importance of the House moving forward on immigration reform,” McMorris Rodgers said, according...

Dr Mark Hobart has reported an abortion specialist to the Australian Medical Board for providing an abortion to a couple who wanted a boy instead of a girl. Source: News Limited A DOCTOR risks being deregistered because he allegedly refused a referral for an Indian couple who wanted to abort a healthy unborn baby girl at 19 weeks, simply because they wanted a boy. Dr Mark Hobart, 55, has been under investigation by the Medical Board of Victoria for five months, accused of having committed an offence under the state's controversial Abortion Law Reform Act of 2008.His patient and her...

BANGALORE: As legal help becomes exorbitantly expensive in the United States, an increasing number of middle-class Americans are reaching out over the internet to lawyers in India for advice and assistance. A growing community of Indian lawyers is finding a business opportunity in helping Americans prepare legal documents. Compared with the $150-300 ( 9,150-18,450) per hour that US lawyers typically charge, enterprising Indian counterparts with online shops are offering their services for as little as $7-20 ( 400-1,200) an hour. "This is proving to be lucrative as requests from US clients are increasing," says advocate Mitul Desai who runs a...

India could take out Qinghai-Tibet Railway to cripple PLA A Su-33MKI fighter of the Indian Air Force. (Photo/USAF) The Qinghai-Tibet Railway — which runs between Xining in western China's Qinghai province and Lhasa in Tibet — could become a potential target for the Su-33MKI fighters of the Indian Air Force if a territorial dispute between China and India escalates into a full-scale war, according to the Kanwa Defense Review operated by Pinkov also known as Andrei Chang, a Canada-based journalist specializing in military issues. Earlier this year, Beijing and New Delhi agreed to withdraw their respective forces from the disputed...

India’s temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy. The central bank, which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India’s current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country’s richest temples asking for details of their gold. It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms. “The gold stored in temples...

Ancient DNA methodology was applied to analyse sequences extracted from freshly unearthed remains (teeth) of 4 individuals deeply deposited in the slightly alkaline soil of Tell Ashara (ancient Terqa) and Tell Masaikh (ancient Kar-Assurnasirpal) – Syrian archaeological sites, both in the middle Euphrates valley... [also] fifty-nine dental non-metric traits on a sample of teeth from 350 human skeletons excavated at three sites in the lower middle Euphrates valley. This showed a stable population until after the Mongolian invasion which resulted in a large depopulation of northern Mesopotamia in the 13th century CE. The final major change occurred during the 17th...

Recent happenings in America show that racism is growing to a point where it can turn into fascism. Let us look at three incidents. An Indian-American girl is selected for and wins the Miss America pageant. However, instead of being welcomed, she is subjected to racist slurs and online bigotry. A Sikh professor is attacked by a mob in New York. The Indian candidates in the election in Edison, New Jersey are subjected to a defacing campaign; their posters defaced by dots representing Bindis and swastikas. These are not isolated incidents by some racist fanatics, but show a growing and...

Vikramaditya “significant capability-enhancer” for Indian Navy- Commodore Berry September 24, 2013 Yekaterina Vorontsova, Aleksandr Yemelyanenkov, Rossiyskaya Gazeta In this exclusive interview, Commodore Suraj Berry, who will take charge of the INS Vikramaditya, talks about the refurbishment of the aircraft carrier and its recent trials, Indo-Russian naval cooperation and his career in the Indian Navy. Commodore Berry, can you tell us something about the interaction between the Russian and Indian Naval crews during the trials of the INS Vikramaditya”? The interaction and professional understanding between the Russian and Indian Navy has been very good and has stood the test of time...

India-Jammu and Kashmir State: Twelve persons, including a Lieutenant Colonel, died in two militant attacks on police and Army formations in two southern districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jammu-Kathua range, Shakeel Beg told the press that four men of the J&K police, three Army personnel, including the second-in-command of 16 Cavalry Regiment, and two civilians were killed. Security forces killed the three militants in gunfights. Four helicopters and some tanks were for the first time used in the manhunt. Indian press reported that the three unidentified militants in combat military uniforms are...

MiG-29K Carrier Trials Complete Flight trials of the MiG-29K on the INS Vikramaditya (formerly Admiral Gorshkov) in the Barents Sea have been completed. Deliveries of the naval version of the fighter to India continue, with the carrier to follow on November 15, and the Russian Navy will soon receive its first MiG-29K. The Russian defense ministry confirmed this month that its only remaining carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, will be modernized to accept MiG-29Ks as well as the Sukhoi Su-25UTG light attack and Su-33 combat aircraft. The latest series of flights, conducted in August and September, used two factory aircraft (a MiG-29KUB...

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to provide a button on voting machines to allow voters to reject all candidates contesting an election in a constituency. Election commission sources said this will be done starting with the next set of assembly elections this year. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam asked the Election Commission to make changes in voting machines and ballot papers, giving voters a "none of the above" choice, and publicise this change widely. The court observed that negative voting would lead to systemic change in elections and political parties...

As reported earlier, Pakistan and India were both shaken by a strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake with numerous aftershocks. While the damage and the casualties from the quake are not fully known yet although according to Raza news agency the latest death toll is at 45, one quite stunning development has emerged, quite literally, out of the sea. As Pakistani's The News reports, an entire island emerged off the country's Gwadar coast in the aftermath of the quake. "According to DIG Gwadar Moazzam Jah, the island's altitude is 20 to 40 feet and width around 100 feet. Talking to Geo news,...

A few minutes ago headlines hit that as a result of a strong earthquake, buildings shook in Delhi, India. Moments later, the USGS confirmed that a major 7.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter 9 miles below the Awaran/Balochistan region in Pakistan had struck, some 43 miles NNE of Awaran, and close to the India border. It is unclear yet if the two quakes were the same although it seems likely. Reuters had this preliminary report: "An strong earthquake struck remote western Pakistan on Tuesday and was felt in the Indian capital of New Delhi where buildings shook. The United States...

Husband escaped to India but Pakistani friend arrested a day after the murderA jobless Indian allegedly premeditatedly killed his wife with the help of his friend due to family disputes and dumped her body near a garbage bin in a farming area near Murgham area on the Dubai-Al Ain Road. A Bangladeshi cleaner reported finding the body of a woman near a garbage bin. “While collecting garbage, I saw a black garbage sack 15 meters away from the bin. Coming closer I saw a body of a woman whose upper part was sticking out of the sack,” AF, 37, testified...

India's government still struggles to provide reliable basic services to a majority of its citizens, trapping hundreds of millions of them in poverty. Now the country's richest firms have been told they must help. Under the new amended Companies Act passed last month by parliament, large businesses have been asked to spend 2.0 percent of their profits each year on "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR). "The idea is that if we could divert some corporate energy and the corporate way of doing business into our development sector, for a country like India it could help enormously," the head of the Indian...

SNIPPET: "I rarely attend trials, but this one is special. On July 24, 2013, the main hearing in the case of German businessman Rudolf M. and Iranian-Germans Gholamali K., Kianzad K., and Hamid Kh. opened at Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court. The defendants are charged with exporting 92 German-produced specialized valves for use in Iran’s Arak plutonium reactor and arranging the shipment of 856 nuclear-usable valves from India to Iran in 2010 and 2011. The reasons why the UN Security Council has ordered Iran to halt the construction of the Arak reactor are compelling. If this nuclear plant comes online in...

There have been many ugly tweets and other nasty comments about the new Miss America, Syracuse, NY born and aspiring cardiologist Nina Davuluri. The former Miss New York is of Indian descent; many of the negative commenters thought she was Arab and/or Muslim. Not so incidentally there were also many positive tweets and comments. Paradoxically, according to Malika Rao writing in The Huffington Post, Davuluri would never have won a similar pageant in her parents' native India because she was too...dark. Yes, even in India, skin color is important--the lighter the better. But there was an unfortunate irony to the...

"We found the very first evidence for archaeological assemblages in association with the Toba ash", says Petraglia. "We found Middle Palaeolithic assemblages below and above the ash indicating the technologies being used at the time of the event. When the stone tool assemblages were analyzed from contexts above and below the ash, we found that they were very similar........We therefore concluded that the Middle Palaeolithic hominins survived the eruption and there was population continuity. This is not what would have been expected based on general theories that the Toba super-eruption decimated populations." Moreover, similar findings published by Christine Lane, et...

“With a subtle motion of the hand”, China took away the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline project from the USA and became yesterday the chief controller of gas resources in Central and South Asia. Somebody else’s ideas and plans have been expropriated by means of contract for sale of 25 billion cubic meters of gas per year concluded between State Concern Turkmengas and Chinese Company CNPC. The deal will increase the total volume of Turkmen gas supplied to China up to 65 billion cubic meters. At the same time, the agreement is achieved on the planned new direction of Turkmenistan–China pipeline (D...

(Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a Pakistani general and another officer on Sunday near the border with Afghanistan, the Pakistani army said, rare high-ranking casualties in Pakistan's war against militants. Major General Sanaullah Khan, along with a lieutenant colonel and another soldier, were killed in the Upper Dir district after visiting an outpost near the border, the army said. Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the bombing, which Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said would not affect the fight against militants. ... The attack comes after weeks of discussions within Sharif's government about whether to pursue peace talks...

The US government has funded eight P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, 2,000 TOW anti-armor missiles, 14 older model F-16 fighter jets, 59 T-37 trainer jets, one missile frigate, six AN/TPS-77 surveillance radars, and 20 Cobra attack helicopters among other weapons for Pakistan. ------ In the context of the recent continuous tensions on the LOC, it is useful to take a hard look at the unhealthy US-Pakistan relationship of dependence, if only as a reminder of how some things never change. The Pakistani military's signals to India are clear and present. The continuous attacks along the Line of Control are an...

When a US delegate once confronted a Chinese diplomat about Beijing's uncompromising support for Pakistan, the Chinese reportedly responded with a heavily-loaded sarcastic remark: "Pakistan is our Israel". But judging by China's unrelenting support for some of its allies, including North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan, its protective arm around these countries is no different from the US and Western political embrace of Israel - right or wrong. ..."China is trying to reassert its political clout at the United Nations as a counterweight to its defensive stand on currency and trade issues." The New York Times newspaper said on Tuesday...

NEW DELHI: With its defence ties with India growing at a rapid pace, Israel today asserted that it will not supply any weapons systems and military hardware to Pakistan, saying the policy in this regard was "very clear" and "strict". Israeli Ambassador Alon Ushpiz said his country follows a very strict guidelines in exporting weapons systems and there was no question of reversing its policy of not supplying military hardware to Pakistan. "The policy of Government of Israel is (very clear) and we are tremendously strict about it that we do not export weapons system to Pakistan," he said. A...

Chennai: A coa­s­tal survey is being carried out in Tamil Nadu by a te­am of professors and students, seeking to throw mo­re light on the ancient po­rts in south India, mentio­ned in Greco Roman geographer Ptolemy’s accounts... Ancient Tamil literature, including ‘Akananuru’ of the Sangam era, referred to the period between 600 BCE and 300 CE, suggest that some 20 to 25 ports had existed in the region. “Greco Roman writer Ptolemy’s geographical ac­c­ounts mention some 15 po­rts. We want to find out whether these ports menti­o­ned in the Sangam era literature and by Ptolemy are the same,” Athiyaman said....

Russian Missiles for India’s Rafales? Russia’s Tactical Missile Corporation is negotiating with Dassault Aviation for the possible use of its missiles on the Rafale combat jets that have been selected by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The corporation, whose Russian acronym is TRV, told journalists attending last week’s Maks airshow in Moscow that the Indian air force has large stocks of Russian air-launched weapons, which drives its interest in adapting them to the French warplane. Although the Rafale was named as the winner of India’s MMRCA competition in January 2012, a firm contract has still not been signed. Dassault did...

NEW DELHI — A judge Friday sentenced to death the four men convicted in the December gang rape and murder of a young New Delhi woman, ordering them to the gallows for a brutal attack on a moving bus that left the young woman with such severe internal injuries that she died two weeks later. Handing down the sentence, Judge Yogesh Khanna said that "courts cannot turn a blind eye" to such crimes, saying the attack "shocked the collective conscience" of India.

Well done to Australia's new Prime-Minister-Elect, the conservative Tony Abbott. He pledged, as his two top priorities, to stop the tide of asylum seekers to the country and to scrap the highly unpopular tax on carbon emissions. Both very admirable intentions. Cutting CO2 does nothing for the environment but a lot for the economy: it destroys it. The environmentalist movement is fundamentally socio-communist. It has proclaimed itself the only saviour of the earth, but the reality is that one does not need to agree with its pseudo-scientific, highly ideological theories or belong to it to care about the environment. Being...

Now Fatwa against photography! India's leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa branding photography ‘unlawful and a sin’. Mufti Abdul Qasim Nomani, Mohtamim (Vice-Chancellor) of the institution, has said Islam does not permit videotaping of marriages or taking of pictures to save as mementos. "Photography is un-Islamic. Muslims are not allowed to get their photos clicked unless it is for an identity card or for making a passport," he was quoted as telling the Press Trust of India over phone. Saudi Arabia allows photographers inside Makkah and live telecast of namaz and Hajj on TV across the...

Cairo: The Arab League will back a Russian plan to place Syrian chemical weapons under international supervision for eventual destruction, its secretary general said on Tuesday. Nabil al-Arabi told reporters in Cairo the League will 'soon issue a statement announcing its support officially' for the Russian plan... "If you remember, I always insisted that (the Syrian conflict) needs a political solution" Arabi said. But they fell short of calling for military strikes as proposed by Washington, with several members opposed to foreign intervention in Syria.

From India's Look-East policy emerges Vietnam an ally to tackle the Asian dragon By lashing out against India for its dealings with Vietnam and other states in East and Southeast Asia, China has shown it will try to deter strategic competitors from collaborating against it. Both India and Vietnam must stand firm.In a significant move India decided to offer a $100-million credit line to Vietnam to purchase military equipment which will be finalized during the visit of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam later this year. Usually, a privilege reserved for its immediate neighbours, this is the...

(Vatican Radio) May we “continue and intensify the commitment to ecumenism, encounter and dialogue towards full communion:” with that message, Pope Francis on Thursday welcomed in the Vatican Baselios Paulose II, Catholicos of the East and Metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Tracey McClure reports: In his remarks to the Catholicos, Pope Francis recalled the efforts of his predecessor John Paul II and the former Catholicos Moran Mar Baselios Marthoma Mathews I which led to the creation in 1990 of an ongoing commission which has laid out agreements for the “common use of buildings of worship and cemeteries,...

KABUL: Indian national Sushmita Banerjee, whose memoir about her dramatic escape from the Taliban was turned into a Bollywood film, was shot dead in Afghanistan by militants, police said on Thursday. Banerjee, 49, was killed outside her home in Paktika province. She was married to Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan and recently moved back to Afghanistan to live with him. Taliban militants arrived at her home in the provincial capital of Kharana, tied up her husband and other members of the family, took Banerjee out and shot her, police were quoted as saying by BBC. The militants dumped Banerjee's body near...

Jaipur: A caste council in Rajasthan has ordered the parents of a six-year-old rape victim to get her married to the eight-year-old son of the man accused of the rape, police said Thursday. The incident occurred at Keshavpura in Kota, 250 km from Jaipur. The 40-year-old man, identified as Kailash, raped the girl who lives in his neighbourhood about a fortnight ago, police said. ...