Free Republic

“We have to start electing people who look like their communities all the way from city council to county commissioners to county clerks all the way through the state and up into national politics,” she [New Mexico governor Susana Martinez] told POLITICO and Yahoo News at the conclusion of the Republican Governors Association meeting here.

On Friday, Walmart filed an unfair labor practice charge against UFCW with the National Labor Relations Board to stop what Walmart says are illegal disturbances against its businesses. A group of Walmart employes, encouraged by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and OUR Walmart, are expected to strike on Black Friday. Black Friday is the store’s busiest day of the year, and this may be the largest strike against the company in its history. Two groups affiliated with the UFCW -- OUR Walmart and Making Change at Walmart -- have been organizing demonstrations and flash mobs outside...

Petraeus Retains Super Washington Lawyer Barnett Amid Potential Probes November 18, 2012 Former CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned after admitting to an extramarital affair, has retained powerful lawyer Robert Barnett of the Washington-based Williams & Connolly law firm. Barnett specializes in crisis management and has represented some of the most powerful political figures in the country, including President Obama; former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush; Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sarah Palin and former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Washington Post reports that “the CIA and other intelligence analysts have settled on what amounts to a hybrid view” of September 11, 2012, “suggesting that the Cairo protest sparked militants in Libya, who quickly mobilized an assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi.”  What the Post doesn’t say is that the Cairo protest was itself an al Qaeda-infused, if not outright orchestrated, event.The “hybrid” explanation is a compromise, of sorts, between two competing narratives. The first suggested that a protest against an anti-Islam film in Benghazi led to a “spontaneous” assault on the US consulate there. We know that version...

'James Bond star Daniel Craig has surprised UK troops at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan by coming to visit them as they prepared to watch his latest film. Some 800 soldiers, sailors and airmen were waiting for a screening of Skyfall when the 007 star arrived. Craig was given a tour of the camp after a brief introduction of the latest Bond film to the audience. He met soldiers and saw some of the training they undergo before they deploy to forward operating bases. The star was driven around the camp in a Foxhound vehicle by Warrant Officer Class 1 Rob...

Pelosi: Tax rates must go up on richBy SEUNG MIN KIM | 11/18/12 10:30 AM EST **SNIP** “The president made it very clear in his campaign that there is not enough -- there are not enough resources,” Pelosi said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's “This Week. “Just to close loopholes is far too little money … If it's going to bring in revenue, the president has been very clear that the higher income people have to pay their fair share.”

According to Britain’s Sunday Times, Israeli special forces are already on the ground in Gaza seeking out rockets and weapons for targeting. The Times is also reporting that Hamas may place chemical weapons on its long-range missiles. “Hamas might go for a desperate attempt to launch rockets with chemical warheads if the worst came to the worst,” one unnamed source reported. It has been reported that Hamas is hiding its rockets underground, particularly near civilian areas including mosques, hoping that Israel will not strike such targets out of concern for civilian life. The same report gave a timeline of the...

Paula Broadwell arrives back at her brother's Washington D.C. home with husband Scott Linked arm-in-arm, Paula Broadwell and her husband Scott were seen together yesterday evening for the first time since the news broke of her affair with shamed former CIA Director David Petraeus. Arriving at her brother's home in the Mount Pleasant suburb of Washington D.C. in a black SUV, the two put on what was a clear show of solidarity as they marched from the garage to the back door of the $2.3 million property. Since the scandalous revelations surrounding his wife first surfaced just over a week...

The cover up is worse than the original crime. When the president conspires with others in government to lie to the American people and claim "national security" as a defense, the congress has a duty and precedent to get to the truth. Lying to the America people and ordering subordinates to lie in a cover up attempt is historically recognized as high crimes and treason and IS definitely an impeachable offense. When the president of the United States commits high crimes and treason and then lies to the American people and conspires to hide it from congressional investigators and claims...

"Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired onto its territory. If that can be accomplished without the ramping up of military activity in Gaza that's preferable," Obama said. "That's not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It's also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they're much more at risk of fatalities or being wounded."

Stress Best (How Surprises Make You Stronger)Randomness, Probability And Uncertainty Nov 17th 2012The Economist Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder. By Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Random House; 519 pages; $30. Allen Lane; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk WHAT is the opposite of fragility? Though not quite right, “resilience” and “robustness” are two words that come to mind. If fragility means something that breaks under stress, its exact opposite should mean something that grows stronger under pressure. There is no word that quite captures this, says Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an American essayist and scholar, so he has invented one: “antifragile”. The neologism...

Rescue crews in Dubai have evacuated a 34-story residential tower after a fire gutted portions of the building. The blaze on Sunday charred the outside of the structure and send gray smoke drifting over a major development known as Jumeirah Lakes Towers, a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings and shops on the southern edge of Dubai. Civil defense officials did not give immediate details on the possible cause of the predawn fire.

Republicans say Rice must testify on Benghazi statementsWASHINGTON | Sun Nov 18, 2012 1:40pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. lawmakers turned up the heat on Sunday on Susan Rice, saying the U.N. ambassador - seen as a possible nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state - must testify before Congress on her remarks after the September attack that killed the American envoy to Libya. **SNIP** "She's going to have to come in and testify at some point, whether it's in a closed hearing or an open hearing," Republican Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,...

Primary School Teachers 'Could Face Sack' For Refusing To Promote Gay Marriage By John Bingham 18 Nov 2012 Liz Truss, an education minister, refused to rule out the possibility that teachers, even in faith schools, could face disciplinary action for objecting on grounds of conscience. Miss Truss said simply that it was impossible to know what the impact of the legislation would be at this stage. Her admission came in a letter to a fellow Conservative MP, David Burrowes, last month. Mr Burrowes, a practising Christian, originally wrote to Maria Miller, the equalities minister, raising concerns about the impact on...

After yesterday's closed-door testimony of David Petraeus on the Hill, we now know for a fact that for two weeks the Obama Administration repeatedly and relentlessly lied to the American people about what they knew was the truth behind the September 11 anniversary attack on our consulate in Libya. Unfortunately, we also now know that they're going to get away with it. Within 24 hours of a coordinated assault that left four Americans dead, then-CIA Director David Petraeus was convinced the intelligence proved a local Libyan militia affiliated with al-Qaeda was responsible, and said so in his report. Then the...

The St. Lucie County canvassing board has missed a noon deadline to file election results to the Division of Elections, prompting campaign officials for Patrick Murphy to declare the political newcomer the winner in the race for congressional District 18 race. Under Florida law, the final certified results were due from all of the state’s 67 supervisors of elections today. If the results do not arrive on time, the certified unofficial results submitted last Sunday stand. Those results have Murphy winning by 0.58 percent. A spread of less than 0.5 percent would have triggered an automatic recount. “Today at noon,...

As previously reported, in resolution GOV/2011/69, the Board stressed that it was essential for Iran and the Agency to intensify their dialogue aimed at the urgent resolution of all outstanding substantive issues for the purpose of providing clarifications regarding those issues, including access to all relevant information, documentation, sites, material and personnel in Iran. In that resolution, the Board also called on Iran to engage seriously and without preconditions in talks aimed at restoring international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme. In light of this, from January 2012 onwards, Agency and Iranian officials held several rounds...

"From the Al-Qassam Brigades to the Zionists: Don't go to sleep because we may get you in your sleep." [Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), Nov. 18, 2012]

Until Friday, there were two possible explanations for why the White House failed to immediately call the Benghazi attack an act of terrorism. One was incompetence, the other was worse. Now there is only one, and it is the worse one. Based on the persuasive testimony of ex-CIA boss David Petraeus, it is clear the Obama administration made a deliberate decision to mislead Congress and the American people. The repeated claim that the attack was spontaneous and grew out of a demonstration against an anti-Islam video — a claim made by the president and secretary of State as they stood...

Woo hoo!! Now closing in on NINETY percent!! We're less than ten or so donations shy of the YELLOW!! Then it'll be the sprint to the GREEN!! We can do this, baby!! And I_be_tc's "300 FReepers with $100 for FR Challenge" is still going strong!! We now have 140 FReepers who have met that challenge!! Way to go, "300/100 Challenge" FReepers!! Almost half way there!! Thank you all very much!! Great job, everyone!! Let's keep it moving. If you enjoy reading and participating on FR, if you think it's a worthwhile endeavor and would like to help us keep it...