Free Republic

When it comes to attracting business to California's eastern deserts, Inyo County is none too choosy. Since the 19th century the sparsely populated county has worked to attract industries shunned by others, including gold, tungsten and salt mining. The message: Your business may be messy, but if you plan to hire our residents, the welcome mat is out. So the county grew giddy last year as it began to consider hosting a huge, clean industry. BrightSource Energy, developer of the proposed $2.7-billion Hidden Hills solar power plant 230 miles northeast of Los Angeles, promised a bounty of jobs and a...

Ugh, here we go again: Self-righteous globalism-loving environmental zealots hellbent on getting developed nations to voluntarily “contract” their relatively prosperous economies, ostensibly in order to combat climate change, while trying to dictate the type of “green” development they’d like to see happen in poorer countries.As I’ve noted before, environmentalists are hopefully sniffing the air now that President Obama has won a second term, banking on the more “flexible” Obama’s willingness to once again take up the mantle of climate change — especially in the wake of this past summer’s droughts and superstorm Sandy. From the AP: [A]s a re-elected president...

Gen. David H. Petraeus, long the most famous overachiever in the U.S. Army, is already on his way to a new career distinction: breaking the land speed record for rehabilitation from a scandal. It was only two weeks ago that Petraeus resigned from his job as director of the CIA after it became clear that his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, couldn't be kept under wraps. The dust hasn't settled yet on the chaos kicked up by the FBI's discovery of the affair, touched off by Broadwell's jealousy of another woman who liked men in uniform. Did Petraeus allow...

Let's get a few things clear. Hostess didn't fail for any of the reasons you've been fed. It didn't fail because Americans demanded more healthful food than its Twinkies and Ho-Hos snack cakes. It didn't fail because its unions wanted it to die. It failed because the people that ran it had no idea what they were doing. Every other excuse is just an attempt by the guilty to blame someone else. Take the notion that Hostess was out of step with America's healthful-food craze. You'd almost think that Hostess failed because it didn't convert its product line into one...

A federal judge Monday rejected Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.'s request to block part of the federal health care overhaul that requires the arts and craft supply company to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after and week-after birth control pills.

At the end of a recent community meeting on the state transportation system, a grandmotherly woman with a lyrical Caribbean accent strode up to the top transportation official in Massachusetts, dispensing with pleasantries. “Let me tell you something,” she told Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey. “I am so upset with Number 28.”

BARCELONA, Spain - Voters in Spain's Catalonia region began voting Sunday in an election whose outcome is likely to test Spanish unity at a time of deep economic crisis. Opinion polls show two-thirds of voters in this region on the French border will cast ballots for parties, both rightist and leftist, that want Catalan independence from Spain. Catalan President Artur Mas will likely win re-election since his conservative Convergence and Union party is forecast to take a majority, some 62 to 64 seats, in the 135-seat regional assembly, or Parliament. Frustration over high unemployment and a deep recession have fueled...

Israeli spy satellites have spotted an Iranian ship being loaded with missiles that analysts say may be headed for Gaza, The Sunday Times reported. According to the report, the cargo may include Fajr-5 rockets, like those that were fired by Hamas toward Israel and the stockpiles of which the Israel Defense Forces depleted during the recent round of fighting across the Gaza border, in addition to Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, which could be stationed in Sudan to pose a direct threat to Israel. "With a lot of effort, Iran has skillfully built a strategic arm pointing at Israel from the south,"...

Sen. Rand Paul renews fight over indefinite detention of US citizens The Hill Nov. 25, 2012 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is bringing a new — and more aggressive — approach to a longstanding debate over the Defense authorization bill, threatening to filibuster the bill to get a vote on his amendment limiting indefinite detention. Paul’s amendment takes a new tack to curb the military’s ability to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism by affirming they have the right to a speedy trial by jury under the Sixth Amendment. His push to change the indefinite detention laws for U.S. citizens...

The following quote was attributed to an unidentified Czechoslovakian Republic leader, a country that suffered generations under the evil of Socialist / Marxist corruption. The writer clearly and succinctly described what may be a troubling reality for America. “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is...

Morsi now wields total control over Parliament, the Judiciary, and the military to a degree Mubarak in his jail cell can only marvel at. Old CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but he's our SOB. New post-Arab Spring CIA wisdom: He may be an SOB but at least he's not our SOB.

The dust hadn't even settled from the debacle of 2012 before we heard that the GOP would be warming up to the idea of immigration reform in an effort to make some inroads with Hispanic voters. Apparently we won't have to wait for the next Congress to be seated before we see some steps in that direction. Word has come out this weekend that House Republicans will introduce a revised version of the previously defeated STEM Jobs Act, which seeks to expand the pool of green cards available for families of well educated immigrant workers. Republican leaders made it clear...

Focus, people! Only 2 things matter - 1. Benghazi 2. Voter Fraud Benghazi - Do Not be gloom and doom self-fulfilling the 'prophecy' that nothing will be done to expose the truth and bring the murderers in the admin to justice! Keep it front and center - bombard media and congress, educate the public. DON'T LET THIS MATTER DIE! DON'T BE DISTRACTED! SUSAN RICE IS NOT THE ISSUE! THE BUCK STOPS AT OBAMA, GO AFTER OBAMA! Demand that he testifies to congress! WE CANNOT LET OBAMA AND HIS CRIMINALS GET AWAY WITH MURDER! There are millions of us. Why can't...

Unions played an important role in American history. At the turn of the last century, a lot of workers encountered awful and dangerous conditions on the job. The workers banded together, demanded changes and got them. After that, Americans joined unions and the dues began to roll in. Riding that wave of compulsory money, union bosses rose. With that much money flowing, corruption wasn’t far behind. Times have changed. The economy, country and world have changed. But unions haven’t. Union membership among non-government employees has fallen off a cliff. But although membership is down, their power remains large. Why? Because...

Riding a wave of confidence after his re-election victory, President Obama is eager to collect scalps from the class war he appears to have won. Americans, Obama said in his postelection news conference earlier this month, "want to make sure that middle-class folks aren't bearing the entire burden and sacrifice when it comes to some of these big challenges. They expect that folks at the top are doing their fair share as well." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed this point in a fundraising pitch sent out on Monday: "Voters sent a clear message to Republicans in the election:...

The Talk Shows November 25th, 2012 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Annual books and authors show.THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.; actor/director Ben Affleck.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

The city of New York continues to seek eviction of churches meeting for worship services in public school buildings on weekends, even after many of the congregations have ministered to the communities in which they meet in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose administration has also come under fire for banning food donations to homeless shelters, has not intervened to stop his Board of Education’s ongoing efforts to oust the churches. “Churches that have been helping communities for years should be allowed to continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior...

The lunchtime rush had subsided, and three idle sandwich shop employees were speculating about what they would do if a guy dressed in T-shirt and jeans walked through the door with a holstered Colt .45 strapped to his hip. “I would think it’s a plainclothes police officer,” said Eric Bejarano. “I would be suspicious that he had come to rob us,” said Candice Guard. “I would call the cops to come check him out,” said Matthew Guard, Candice’s husband. If a Texas lawmaker has his way, strangers wearing six-shooters may become a common sight across the state. The Legislature passed...

When it comes to high-end weapons, there's a new company in town that's changing the way people think about rifles. Founded in 2010, Proof Research of Kalispell specializes in creating lightweight, accurate weapons using carbon-fiber barrels and stocks unlike anything else on the market. “Large gun manufacturers know we have the technology and we're being courted by some big names,” said Pat Rainey, chief executive officer of Proof Research. “We've changed the gun industry, just like the polymer pistol did. The cool factor of our weapons is off the page.” Joining forces in the Flathead While Proof Research may only...

Sin in haste, repent at leisure. One of the few silver linings in the dark cloud of Obama’s re-election is that millions of moonbats and Beautiful People who voted this month to continue our long national nightmare are now discovering, much to their chagrin, that they’re as screwed as all the “bitter clingers” who still go to church on Sunday. Not that it was any big secret, but it’s asking an awful lot of the dumbed-down modern electorate to pay attention to its own best interests. Of course tens of millions of Obama’s votes came from the people he likes...