Free Republic

Ralph Nader, a five-time failed U.S. presidential candidate, has written an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Here it is, verbatim: Dear Mr. Cook, “Designed by Apple in California” has a nicer ring to it than “Assembled by workers paid about a dollar per hour, working 11­-hour shifts, and sleeping eight to a room in the Jabil Circuit corporate dormitories in Wuxi, China.” But, no matter how you spin it on the iPhone packaging, you continue to turn away from the horrid working conditions and miserly pay at your Chinese factories. Just last month, while you displayed ­­ through...

Next stop on Speaker John Boehner’s 2014 campaign tour: Iowa. The Ohio Republican will swing through the Hawkeye State on Sunday and Monday to attend campaign rallies and headline private fundraisers for three surging GOP House candidates — David Young, Rod Blum and Mariannette Miller-Meeks. ADVERTISEMENT On Sunday afternoon, Boehner will be in Urbandale, just outside Des Moines, to fire up supporters and campaign volunteers working to elect Young, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley’s former top aide who’s running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Tom Latham in the 3rd District. The Republican hopeful is in a toss-up contest with Democrat Staci...

Phuket's Provincial Public Health Office sent agents to the condo to collect samples to test for the Ebola virus after discovering the victim, Martin John Roberts Clark, 68, had recently returned from Nigeria. Phuket Governor, Nisit Jansomwong, explained that the result of the autopsy would be announced today (October 25). Dr Kajornsak Kaewjarat, chief of Phuket Provincial Public Health Office said that the agents at the scene were collecting blood and mucus samples as well as other belongings from the room. Dr Kajornsak said, “The samples and belongings will be sent to the Regional Medical Sciences Centre in Phuket. “He...

WASHINGTON — It's Nov. 5 and jubilant Republicans have captured the Senate, giving the party control of both chambers of Congress for the last two years of Barack Obama's presidency. Now what? The power and agenda in the Senate would shift dramatically. Republicans goals — rolling back the Affordable Care Act, approving the Keystone XL pipeline, lowering tax rates and investigating the Obama administration — would dominate Senate debate and hearings. However, Republican control would do little to change the recipe for gridlock. The Republican majority in the Senate would almost certainly be small, well short of the 60 votes...

October 25, 2014 Naive Immigration Policy is a Existential Threat Ken Blackwell 10/25/2014 12:01:00 AM - Ken Blackwell With planes being grounded in my home state of Ohio and hospital workers in Texas contracting Ebola, Americans now have stark examples of the danger of President Barack Obama's policies.Obama has refused to impose a travel ban on flights from Ebola-stricken African countries for political reasons. He does not want to quarantine people who have been in those regions during the past month because it would hurt the already fledgling prospects of Democrats during this midterm election. Our Campaigner-in-Chief is now...

The Ferguson-Florissant and Clayton school districts sent letters to parents this week with reminders of emergency procedures should classes be canceled, delayed or dismissed early. Schools typically send reminders before winter begins of inclement weather procedures. But the districts want parents to be especially cognizant this year as the public awaits a decision from the St. Louis County grand jury on whether to charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. “Should any event occur during school hours which presents a concern for public safety, a decision will be made as soon as possible regarding...

While all three GOP-backed members voted against restrictions, they were opposed by the three Democratic-backed members, including FEC Vice Chair Ann M. Ravel, who said she will lead a push next year to try to come up with new rules government political speech on the Internet.

Two video bloggers got press for posting a video which they claimed shows the NYPD’s Islamophobia. In the video, two men wearing western clothes argue and push each other, and an officer does nothing. When dressed in Muslim garb, but acting the same way, they got a different reaction. The video was tweeted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Huffington Post called it a “small glimpse into the ugly world of racial profiling.” …

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs finally removed an Alabama director of Alabama Veterans Healthcare. James Talton, had been on paid ($118.23/Hr) leave since August. Participating in or being oblivious to systematic falsifying of records, creative and recreational crank cocaine and prostitution therapies and covering thousands of unread patient X-rays "routinely lost" until recently. Multiple administrators on all levels, knew and turned a blind eye or actively tried to cover it up. Jim was removed after an investigation by the Office of Accountability Review investigation substantiated allegations of “neglect of duty,” according to a VA statement.

Egypt has declared a state of emergency in the north and centre of the Sinai Peninsula after a suicide car bombing killed at least 30 soldiers. The measures will begin on Saturday at 03:00 GMT "for [a] duration of three months," Presidency Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said in a statement, in the wake of the deadliest attack on the security forces since the army deposed President Mohamed Morsi last year. A three-day mourning period has been declared across the country, ...

-A HazMat team was sent in to sterilize the apartment of NYC Ebola patient Craig Spencer on Friday -The team spent almost the entire day in the building -They left with sealed barrels, but not wearing any sort of protective gear The preparedness of New York City officials and workers to deal with Ebola has once again left much to be desired as a HazMat team sent in to decontaminate the apartment of Craig Spencer, the first person to contract the deadly virus in the city, was seen leaving his apartment with sealed barrels, but wearing no protective gear. The...

Gov. Tom Corbett blasted the General Assembly and line-item vetoed more than $70 million from the budget but signed the rest of it into law Thursday. The line-item veto removed $65 million in proposed spending from the General Assembly's own funding, which he said was equivalent to the legislators' surplus, as well as $7.2 million from general appropriations. (snip) Corbett reserved more ire for the General Assembly in what he said was its failure to address the public-pension crisis, an issue he has campaigned for big changes including a move toward a 401(k)-style system for new state employee and public...

A radio ad from the Kentucky House Democratic Caucus Campaign Committee is being pulled from the air in the 3rd District state House race after the group twisted the wording of the Republican candidate on tolls. ............................................ "He told the Courier-Journal, in writing, that putting up tolls on our local roads was his chief priority,” the announcer in the ad says. “So Bridges will hike tolls for western Kentucky drivers.” Hear the radio ad here: Local radio station WKYQ reviewed the ad and citations, at Bridges’ request, and decided to pull the ad from their airwaves. The station said because...

Conservative documentary filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch was on “The Kelly File” tonight, where he told Megyn that he is exploring the idea of running for president. “I will announce in the future that I am going to run for the presidency, and the reason why I’m doing that Megyn is because I’m absolutely in love with my country, I’m in love with the American people. I want to protect them like I would protect my children, like I would protect your children, in the sense that somebody has to step up and get this country back on track, to protect...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) project designed to track “misinformation” on Twitter has removed portions of its website that monitored political users, including conservatives who used the “tcot” hashtag. “Truthy,” the nearly $1 million research project being conducted by the University of Indiana, has redesigned its website following the Washington Free Beacon’s initial report on the study. Truthy Removes Part of Website That Monitored Conservative Hashtags Free Beacon prohibited from asking further questions about project The service is intended to monitor “suspicious memes” and “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online. Truthy has received increased...

Terry Keenan, a former CNN and Fox News anchor, has died. She was 53. Keenan’s sister, Linda, tells TVNewser the cause of death was a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Keenan had been receiving treatment at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital. A pioneer among women working in financial news, Keenan joined Fox in 2002 from the now-shuttered CNNfn where she’d been since 1998. Before that, Keenan spent three years at CNBC. Her first television job was at CNN, which she joined in 1986. Keenan left Fox News in 2009 to, in her family’s words, “work on her most cherished production: her son...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)A health care worker who was quarantined at Newark Liberty International Airport after returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa developed a fever and was being evaluated Friday night. The woman was the first person quarantined under a new screening system announced earlier Friday by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The woman landed at Newark after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at the news conference. A legal quarantine was issued for the woman, who was not a New Jersey resident and was set to go on...

The World Health Organization (WHO) set out plans on Friday for speeding up development and deployment of experimental Ebola vaccines, saying hundreds of thousands of doses should be ready for use in West Africa by the middle of 2015. The Geneva-based United Nations health agency confirmed that two leading vaccine candidates are already in human clinical trials, and said another five experimental vaccines were also being developed and would begin clinical trials next year.

The official autopsy of Michael Brown was leaked earlier this week sparking more protests in Feguson and caused the Justice Department to condemn the release of the information. According to reports, Attorney General Eric Holder is “exasperated” over the “selective leaks” in the Brown case. Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump believes the leaks might be a deliberate move by prosecutor Bob McCulloch. On Friday, “NewsOne Now” guest host Mo Ivory and the Straight Talk panel (Ray Baker, Lauren Victoria Burke and Jarvis Stewart) discuss the leaked information, how the Darren Wilson team may be using the leaked information to craft...

It was just another trip to Wal-Mart for 2nd Lt. Joshua Nelson when he popped in to grab some fish hooks for a family trip to the lake this past Spring. Little did he know that a quick shopping trip would turn into so much more. The West Virginia Air National Guardsman was walking to the Hunting and Fishing section when he heard a woman say, "Stop, put it down!" "I could tell she was stressed and she sounded frightened," said Nelson. "I looked into the aisle, and this young man had a knife to a woman's stomach." According to...