Free Republic

Last Thursday, in remarkably blunt language, the heads of three major labor unions – James Hoffa of the Teamsters, Joseph Hansen of UFCW, and Donald “D.” Taylor of UNITE-HERE — wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid denouncing Obamacare’s impact on employer-sponsored health insurance. Some of the highlights: “The ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.” “This vision [of universal health care] has come back to haunt us.” “Our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with...

St. Louis cop accidentally shoots partner while aiming at dog 13 hrs ago A St. Louis police officer was accidentally shot Thursday by his partner, who was trying to shoot what they said was an aggressive-looking dog. The two cops were investigating local copper thefts when they were approached by an "aggressive dog showing its teeth." One officer — the one who didn't end up with a bandage on his arm — pulled his gun and fired "three or four shots" at the animal. One bullet ricocheted off a sidewalk, bouncing backward and hitting his partner near his elbow. Neither...

Microsoft is pulling the plug on MSN TV, a service formerly known as WebTV, as Apple ramps up its set-top box efforts. The pioneering service, one of the first to offer Internet access via television sets, will shut down September 30, Microsoft revealed in an e-mail to subscribers and an FAQ posted to its Web site. WebTV, which was founded by Web entrepreneur Steve Perlman in 1996, was acquired by Microsoft for $425 million in 1997. …

June 27, 2013 Hollywood braces for Obamacare Ashe Schow Hollywood, which helped sell Obamacare by promoting it in TV shows and is now being recruited by the Obama administration to make the unpopular law look "cool" to youths, is bracing itself for the law's implementation."It's a morass of regulations and requirements, and everyone's trying to figure out what their exposure is," Eric Belcher, president and CEO of Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, told the Hollywood Reporter. "[Obamacare] is thousands of pages and it wasn't written with this industry in mind."The entertainment industry is already having difficulty determining whether employees can...

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.

Members of Burma’s Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse. “You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a...

“Bankruptcy now appears unavoidable, and a political reckoning is coming” writes the New York Time’s Bill Vlasic today about Fisker Motors, the Obama administration’s pet electric car company that received millions in federal loans. Vlasic described the car company as the “Solyndra of Electric car companies.” As Congress prepares to grill the leaders of Fisker Motors this afternoon, here are 47 depressing facts about Fisker:

— But You Won’t Believe How It Happened Police in Polk County, Ore. found a suspected burglar dead inside a stolen truck Sunday morning. They say he burglarized a home twice the night before, stealing several items, including two guns. In a statement, investigators said 19-year-old Genaro Hernandez Mendoza of West Salem, Ore. was heading to his family’s farm when he broke into a home on Independence Highway and stole several items. He then returned to the farm and hid the stolen items behind a barn. Police say he then stole a pickup truck and returned to the same home...

Tehran Battles Plague of 'Mutant' Giant Rats with Army Snipers Tehran, the capital of Iran, is battling an invasion of "genetically mutated" giant rats. Iran has sent in sniper teams to clear Tehran's streets from the massive rodents weighting up to five kilos plaguing 26 district of the Iranian capital, the city's environmental agency said. "They seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them," Ismail Kahram, Teheran city council environment adviser and university professor Ismail Kahram told Qudsonline.ir. "They are now bigger and look different. These are changes that...

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge shot down the octogenarian mogul’s attempt to dismiss a blockbuster $50 million lawsuit by his decades-younger ex, actress Adriana Ferreyr. Justice Debra James upheld most of the beauty’s claims against the lefty activist, who allegedly reneged on a promise to give her a $1.9 million apartment and then slapped her around . ... James called Soros’ alleged behavior “atrocious.” He “exhibited violent conduct towards her and hired persons to follow and intimidate her,”

Joe McGinniss, the author of "Fatal Vision," "Final Vision" and a 2011 Sarah Palin biography, announced that he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer last May. "I was diagnosed in May with advanced, metastatic prostate cancer," he wrote Wednesday on his Facebook page. "There is no cure, so sooner or later it's terminal." --snip-- Most recently, McGinniss profiled Sarah Palin in "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin," which portrayed the former GOP vice presidential candidate in a less than positive manner. After renting a house neighboring Palin's Alaskan home to carry out his research, he emerged with claims...

Most comedians would kill to create a character which impacted not just his or her own career but the national conversation. Others, like Tina Fey, would rather not be reminded of their creation - assuming said creation is former Gov. Sarah Palin.

I haven't gotten my first paycheck of 2013 yet, but because I'm a person who pays some attention to the goings-on in our country, I'm well aware that it will be significantly lower than my last paycheck of 2012. And it's not just the payroll tax thing. My health insurance premiums went up (thanks for nothing, Obamacare!), I've started a contribution to the United Way, and I've upped the amount I'm contributing to my flexible spending account. So yeah - I'm expecting a major plummet in my net take home pay. But the jokers in this column? They were shocked...

Several former workers at a Hostess Brands plant in Rocky Mount said Friday they were relieved after the company filed for bankruptcy, seeking to close its operations. The closings will mean the loss of about 18,500 jobs overall. “They’ve been holding this over our head for a long time and now it’s here,” said Lamont Phillips, an oven operator and the president of the local union. “They had to do it. “I don’t have to deal with that anymore. The things that they were trying to do to us, it wasn’t fair. “They always hold that over our heads, that...

"We need to embrace them not just at election time. We visit them, and they don't appreciate that. And I don't blame them for not appreciating that. We should not visit them when we need their vote and then walk away," she said. "And then four years go by and we go visit them again. We have to make them part of the solution, and the way you do that is by listening to them. And then making that part of, 'how do we do this together to make our lives all better?' "And then once you've done it," she...

Approximately 16 of the $100,000+ Fisker Karma extended-range luxury hybrids were parked in Port Newark, New Jersey last night when water from Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge apparently breached the port and submerged the vehicles. As Jalopnik has exclusively learned, the cars then caught fire and burned to the ground. Our source tells us they were “first submerged in a storm surge and then caught fire, exploded.” This wouldn’t be the first time the vehicles, which use a small gasoline engine to charge batteries that provide energy to two electric motors, had an issue with sudden combustion. The vehicle, despite only...

16 Fisker Karmas Caught Fire During The HurricaneAlex Davies | Oct. 31, 2012, 11:07 AM A lot of cars ended up underwater in areas flooded by Hurricane Sandy over the past two days. But for already troubled Fisker, things got worse: Approximately 16 Karmas in Port Newark, New Jersey were submerged, then caught fire. A witness told Jalopnik the extended-range luxury hybrids were "first submerged in a storm surge and then caught fire, exploded."

Security and medical officials in Kibaale District have registered a case in which a man allegedly went in an isolation ward at Kagadi Hospital and stole a cellular phone from one of the Ebola patients. The 40-year-old resident of Kyakabugahya LCI in Kagadi Town Council travelled about three kilometers to the hospital to apparently obtain a phone estimated to be valued at Shs60,000 more than two weeks ago. The suspect allegedly broke into the isolation ward on the night of Tuesday August 14, undetected by hospital guards. The patient, who has since succumbed to the deadly hemorrhagic fever, then reported...

<p>DETROIT (AP) — Electric-car maker Fisker Automotive is recalling about 2,400 Karma sports sedans to fix cooling fans that can catch fire.</p> <p>The recall comes after Fisker and a private fire investigation firm finished probing an Aug. 10 fire in a Karma in Woodside, Calif.</p>

RedState’s Erick Erickson tweeted this could be the moment when Mitt Romney lost the election. In an interview of Fox News, Romney Press Secretary Andrea Saul decided to invoke Romneycare as a counterpoint to the despicable narrative being pushed by Priorities USA. I’m sure you’ve seen the infamous ‘cancer ad.’ Business Insider reported on August 8th that: …In defending Romney, she [Saul] veered way off message, explaining that if the steelworker, Joe Soptic, had lived in Massachusetts, he and his wife would have been able to get health insurance under Romney’s health-care reform legislation.Here’s what she told Fox anchor Bill...