Free Republic

The clock ticked a little impatiently, waiting for an answer. My answer. The interviewer’s question stuck in my mind, “Have you worked with diverse students before?” Looking past her wide set eyes, I focused on the picture of MLK behind her head. He stared down at me with knowing eyes. Brooding. Silent. Without reserve. I paused, finding the answer to her question. “Yes. I have worked with diverse students. I mean, I’ve been an English Language Development teacher for the past two years and all of my students have been Hispanic.” “I wouldn’t call that diverse.” She caught me with...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday blasted Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) proposed rule changes, saying they would do “irreparable damage” to the chamber. “Such a rules change won’t do them any good in the short term ... but it will do the institution irreparable damage in the long term,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We should work together instead to resolve our differences.”

Grassroots Republican operatives and Movement conservatives are quickly turning against the GOP Establishment in the wake of the party's expensive defeat this election cycle. Republicans we spoke to this week voiced a near-universal disgust with the national Republican Party leaders and Washington political class, who are seen as having put personal financial interest above winning the election. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/karl-rove-gop-money-civil-war-republicans-2012-11#ixzz2ECkUPpGG

WASHINGTON -- Keeping with his post-election pledge to reform the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday proffered that changes to the rules of the upper chamber will be made, leaving it up to Republicans if they would like to participate. "There are discussions going on now [over filibuster reform], but I want to tell everybody here. I'm happy I've had a number of Republicans come to me, a few Democrats,” Reid told reporters Tuesday at his weekly press availability. “We're going to change the rules. We cannot continue in this way. I hope we can get something...

The father of a former Navy SEAL killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, says he learned the details of his son’s bravery not from the Obama administration, but in an email from an American whose life was saved by his son. Tyrone Woods, 41, was found “slumped over his machine gun, which was caked with blood,” Charles Woods, the former SEAL’s father, said during a telephone interview from his home in Hawaii.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) took a public shot at House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Tuesday night, in the wake of a shake-up that knocked a small group of conservatives off prominent committees. Justin Amash ✔ @repjustinamash Still waiting for call from GOP leadership. Are they too embarrassed to explain they booted me for working to reduce debt? 4 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite Amash, a libertarian-leaning conservative, was taken off the House Budget Committee. Tea party-backed Rep. Tim Huelskamp (Kan.) was taken off Budget and Agriculture. Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.), a rare moderate, and David Schweikert (Ariz.) lost their spots on the...

WASHINGTON – Just one day after tax activist Grover Norquist warned Democrats are coming after the middle class for $3 trillion in tax hikes, another conservative leader says it appears the big GOP strategy is to figure out how to surrender. Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, told WND today that the Republican leadership is lacking vision, resents its own conservative base and needs to refocus. “If the Republicans continue a campaign of presenting themselves as Democrat-lite, they are going to see the losses increase. It will not be long before the Democrats are in complete control,” he told...

<p>BETHEL, Conn. (AP) — A 46-year-old Connecticut man and his 23-year-old daughter have been arrested on incest allegations after police say DNA tests proved they were the parents of a child.</p> <p>An arrest warrant affidavit obtained by The News-Times of Danbury (http://bit.ly/SEYwsg) says George Sayers and Tiffany Hartford of Bethel were charged Monday with third-degree sexual assault in an investigation that began with a complaint by Hartford’s former girlfriend.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA is adrift without a coherent vision for where it should be going, an independent panel of space, science and engineering experts says. But the report by the National Academy of Sciences doesn't blame the space agency. It faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA clear direction. At the same time, the report said NASA is doing little to further the stated goal of the White House to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid. Panel member Bob Crippen, a retired NASA manager and astronaut who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he...

If the fiscal cliff talks make Lindsay Lohan look like a productive member of society, perhaps it's because President Obama and John Boehner are playing by the dysfunctional Beltway rules. The rules work if you like bigger government, but Republicans need a new strategy, which starts by exposing the rigged game of "baseline budgeting." Both the White House and House Republicans are pretending that their goal is "reducing the deficit," which they suggest means making real spending choices. They are talking about a "$4 trillion plan," or something, regardless of how that number is reached. Here's the reality: Those numbers...

I’ve usually avoided talking about the trial of Private Bradley Manning, given that I’ve been directly involved with this situation before and I probably will be in the future. But I feel that certain recent developments in the case deserve to be addressed. ... As part of this phase of the trial, the court heard the testimony of Master Sgt. Craig Blenis, who acted as Manning’s counselor during his detainment at Quantico. According to reporters covering the hearing, Blenis stated that Manning had sent two letters from the brig using the name “Breanna”, and he considered this a reason to...

Did Jovan Belcher, the 6’2” 228 pound linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, need a gun to kill his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins? How about to commit suicide? --snip-- Whether people like Costas like it or not the facts speak for themselves: Murder rates consistently rise when guns are banned. This is not just a US phenomenon in places such as Washington, DC and Chicago, but has been observed worldwide. When guns are banned, even in island nations such as the UK, Ireland, and Jamaica, the pattern has been the same. The problem is that gun bans disarm law-abiding good people,...

While we meddle on the margins and stay safely ballparks away from anything that might actually tackle our deficit and debt problems: The Government Accountability Office warned in a report Monday that if cuts are not made to mandatory spending — including Social Security and Medicare — there will be a fundamental gap between spending and revenue as more baby boomers retire.“Significant actions to change the long-term fiscal path must be taken,” the GAO warned. Strangely, the Government Accountability Office does not headline this report with the $800 billion we can raise over 10 years from tax hikes on those...

Exclusive: William Murray blasts establishment for still ignoring so-called social issues A politician who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the vote of Paul. This statement was obviously proven in the election of Barack Obama who spent four years expanding the ranks of dependency using every avenue of government possible, from food stamps to mortgage reductions. At the founding of our nation, Benjamin Franklin said, “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” California has lead the way to hell in numerous ways for decades, and in...

Obama: We Are Not Going To Negotiate With The Debt Ceiling David Taintor 11:19 AM EST, Wednesday December 5, 2012 President Obama on Wednesday described Republicans who are considering holding the debt ceiling vote hostage in additional negotiations after the so-called fiscal cliff in January as partaking in a "bad strategy for America." "I will not play that game," Obama told business leaders at a quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington. "We are not going to play that game next year. We've got to break that habit before it starts."

<p>Citigroup announced on Wednesday that it would cut 11,000 jobs, reducing its work force by roughly 4 percent in an effort to cut costs.</p> <p>Under the reduction, 1,900 jobs will be eliminated in the institutional clients division. Another 6,200 positions will be removed from the bank’s consumer banking business, along with 2,600 jobs in the operations and technology group.</p>

ROSENBERG: One Of The Most Reliable Economic Indicators Peaked In July Sam RoDecember 5, 2012When the official headline economic indicators don't work, savvy investors turn to the unconventional economic indicators. In his latest Breakfast With Dave note, David Rosenberg visits a signal being sent by the restaurant sector: EATING OUT IS OUT Our hedge fund desk has always told me that among the most reliable cyclical indicators for the American consumers is the restaurant sector. Traffic is slowing down precipitously and the companies are issuing negative guidance. I took a look at the monthly details from the latest PCE data...

Some journalistic values are not necessarily the same as human values -- a fact that explains much about the uproar over Tuesday's front-page photo in the New York Post. "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die," screamed the headline under the word: "DOOMED."The man's name was Ki Suk Han, a 58-year-old North Korean immigrant from Queens. The photo capturing the last seconds of his life has provoked soul-searching and outrage over journalistic ethics -- or lack of them. Practically nobody is defending the Post for publishing it -- or its photographer for taking it. Aside from...

Taxes on the wealthy are going up, House Speaker John Boehner conceded on Wednesday in challenging President Barack Obama to sit down with him to hammer out a deal for avoiding the fiscal cliff. The statement to reporters reflected how negotiations on reducing the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt have evolved since Obama's re-election last month. Republicans once opposed to any new revenue in their quest to shrink government now realize Obama's victory and public support for the president's campaign theme of higher taxes on the wealthy leave them with little negotiating leverage. Less than four weeks from the...

For all those who think that our deficit is caused by a dearth of revenue, consider this thought experiment. In 2012, the federal government will spend $3.56 trillion. Last week’s Powerball jackpot was a reported $587.5 million, the largest winning Powerball payout ever. In order to finance current spending, the federal government would have to hit that jackpot 6,570 times. As recently as fiscal year 2001, President Clinton’s last budget, federal spending amounted to just $1.9 trillion. If spending since 2000 had simply increased at the rate of inflation plus population growth, spending this year would have been less than...