Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. -- State unions were dealt a setback Friday when a federal judge said they would have to get their members to opt in, rather than opt out, to having the state deduct union dues from their paychecks. What's more, the judge did not rule on dues deductions for unions that he earlier found the state improperly decertified. The state's largest unions were decertified, and the ruling -- at least for now -- will make it harder for them to get money from dues. But U.S. District Court Judge William Conley gave unions one beneficial ruling by saying that...

Kabul, Afghanistan — Five American service members and an Afghan-American linguist were directly involved in the burning of Korans at a NATO base, an event a week ago that plunged Afghanistan into days of violent protests, according to the preliminary conclusions of a joint military investigation. “All six will be referred to the proper U.S. authorities for further action,” said an official familiar with the joint Afghan-American investigation into the Koran burnings, who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. Significantly, the five service members found responsible so far include military

Members of the House of Representatives are being told that no holiday greetings, including “Merry Christmas,” can be sent out in official mail. According to the Washington Examiner, members who submit official mailings for review by the congressional franking commission that reviews all congressional mail to determine if it can be "franked," or paid for with tax dollars, are being told that no holiday greetings, including "Merry Christmas," can be sent. "I called the commission to ask for clarification and was told no 'Merry Christmas.' Also told cannot say 'Happy New Year' but can say 'have a happy new year'...

A new study coming out of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., indicates that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States are predominantly Republican, overwhelmingly white, well-educated, prosperous and have larger-than-average families. The study also found that Mormon women are less likely to work outside the home than other American women. SNIP The Mormon Social Science Association is an independent organization that was created to foster the scholarly study of Mormon life. "This is a timely academic study that provides hard evidence on the social profile of a community which is unfamiliar to Americans...

With approximately 85 hours remaining before contracts between the United Auto Workers union and Detroit’s Big Three expire, UAW members can expect a substantially higher signing bonus than in year’s past, according to reports. But, just how high the bonuses will be remains under speculation. Sept. 10, the Detroit News: “… Reports that it could be as high as $10,000, which is about three times what union members received for ratifying the last national contract in 2007 are being described as too high.

Today, one 911 mom, who lost her son, said to me of our 911 Freedom Rally, "I am looking forward to the rally. It is a place we can be free to really remember the who, why, when and where of 9-11. The morning ceremony is devoid of any meaning." The NY Post is reporting that many 911 family members have not been invited to the official ceremonies of 911. This is just monstrous. First it was clergy, then 911 first responders who were excluded from the official ceremonies -- now it's the victims' families. Mayor Gloomberg not only lost...

While Sabu and Topiary are firmly on the inside, the likes of The Jester and LulzSec Exposed are most certainly notInside Sabu Apparent founder and leader of LulzSec, he is a long-time hacktivist associated with senior Anonymous members. Decides who can join the group and who should be targeted. Attempts by rivals to uncover details about his real-life identity suggest he is a 30-year-old IT consultant skilled in the Python programming language who has lived in New York. The timing of some his tweets – tweeting "goodnight all" at 0700 BST, or 0200 New York time – implies he is...

Despite the promise that President Obama's first Facebook town hall would open a new level of two-way communication with his constituents, social-networking technology didn't add much to the conversation. Obama answered just eight questions during Wednesday's hour-long session at Facebook's secondary headquarters building in Palo Alto Facebook employees who won a company lottery for the chance to sit in the live audience. That left hundreds of questions posted on the event's Facebook wall unanswered. Judging from comments posted on Facebook after the event, viewers noticed. "Not bad, but not great," wrote Rose Berendes. "How could there not have been a...

Whoever said “Numbers never lie” was not a religion reporter. Beware of confidently using specific numbers about religious identification or belief. Here’s why. The U.S. Census, the usual standard for counting people and their characteristics, does not ask people their religious affiliation. There is no single religion survey that is considered to be the most reliable (see Page 27). The results differ depending on what options are offered, how people are contacted, how many people are surveyed and other factors. Numbers can vary widely, and many faith groups are so small that they rarely show up on surveys in proportion...

SEIU 1199: Um, we lied to our members about Obamacare woes By Michelle Malkin • December 2, 2010 09:29 AM The backpedaling Purple Army bosses are running scared. As you know from my column yesterday, the mammoth SEIU 1199 chapter dropped kiddie coverage and specifically blamed the Obamacare slacker mandate for raising costs. Reminder from the WSJ report on the union’s woes: More than 30,000 low-wage families will be affected, according to The Wall Street Journal. Who’s to blame? SEIU 1199 benefits manager Mitra Behroozi singled out oppressive new state and federal regulations, including the much-ballyhooed Obamacare rule forcing insurers...

You spoke. You were heard. This, was the right thing to do-

Two men standing behind President Obama at a campaign rally for Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA) are wearing a shirt with his face on it.

Local black conservative candidates challenge misguided July 14, 2010 By Fran Eaton This week at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention in Kansas City, attendees are expected to pass a resolution condemning alleged racism among national Tea Party supporters. The NAACP points as evidence to offensive rally posters, supposed shouted racial epithets, among other complaints of movement discrimination. Indeed, the Tea Party movement has voiced strong opposition to the biracial U.S. president's policies, but local black conservatives say their positions have nothing to do with race. They are upset about economic and social policies that...

A larger-than-usual group of conservatives waived flags and proclaimed their patriotism Saturday in Morgan Hill, a public display of support for the Tea Party and four local high school students, admonished last Wednesday by a school administrator for wearing American flag-attire on Cinco de Mayo.The local Tea Party contingent gathers at the downtown street corner each weekend. But on Saturday, fueled by national media coverage of the incident at Live Oak High School, dozens of additional protesters appeared dressed in red, white and blueto express anger over the boys' treatment. School administrators feared the students wearing the American flag shirts...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats. The Maryland Democrat said more than 10 House Democrats have reported incidents of threats or other forms of harassment about their support of the highly divisive health insurance overhaul vote. Hoyer emphasized that he didn’t have a specific number of threats and that was just an estimate. TheFederal Bureau of Investigation, Capitol Police and sergeant at arms briefed Democrats behind closed doors today...

WASHINGTON (AP) - On his first Thanksgiving in the White House, President Barack Obama has telephoned 10 U.S. servicemen and women stationed in war zones to thank them for their service. The White House says Obama called two service members each in the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Marines and the Coast Guard. The service members are stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Arabian Gulf.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Just 22 countries out of 192 -- 11.4 percent -- are paid-in-full members of the United Nations, a U.N. official said on Wednesday. Those nations have paid all of what they owed for the world body's 2008/09 core budget, peacekeeping, international tribunals and renovations to U.N. headquarters in New York, said Angela Kane, U.N. under secretary-general for management. They are Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Congo, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Niger, the Philippines, Singapore, Italy, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and Tajikistan. The rest including the United States -- the top contributor...

Four Jewish Defense League members were arrested on Wednesday, according to Agence France Presse, in connection to last week's attack on a Paris bookstore. Judicial officials were quoted in the report as saying that the shop is run by pro-Palestinian activists, and has fallen victim to several such attacks.

In order to justify their political agenda, gun control organizations often claim that “most Americans” support various restrictive laws. For example, Mayors Against Illegal Guns published a report last year stating: Nearly 60 percent of Americans favor stricter gun laws. A majority of Americans, 59 percent, believe that the laws covering the sale of guns should be made more strict than they are currently. This is very similar to the 56 percent of Americans who said so in a January 2007 poll conducted for Mayors Against Illegal Guns. A third of the public, 33 percent, think that gun laws should...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2008 – From a civilian perspective, it may be hard to understand the challenge of constant relocation that comes with military service. Finding new schools, identifying new organizations to join and tracking down a safe neighborhood can be an overwhelming process. As a result, many military families turn to others in the military community for information and resources. “What one person doesn’t know, someone else usually does,” retired Army Col. Dale Kissinger said. “The problem is finding that person.” Kissinger is co-founder of MilitaryAvenue.com, a military-oriented Web site that offers moving, travel and lifestyle services and discounts....