Free Republic

Mitt Romney finally has it figured out. He knows why he lost. Guess what? It was all President Barack Obama's fault. Of course, that's not exactly the way Romney puts it. He puts it in a way that sounds even more silly than that. Or perhaps, depending on your worldview, more tragic. In a 20-minute afternoon conference call with his major donors and fundraisers eight days after Election Day, Romney blamed his loss on Obama's showering groups with what Romney called "gifts" to various groups of voters, "especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people." Zounds! As we...

In her "Sunday Roundup" post at the site which bears her last name, Arianna Huffington supported that notion that "This week, America finally began questioning the judgment of its generals," but lamented that the scrutiny is over "sexual conduct rather than military conduct." Fine, that's her opinion. But what's really odd is that she apparently thought that referencing a headline found at the Onion would be seen by readers as meaningful support for her argument (HT to a NewsBusters tipster): If our failed military strategy in Afghanistan had gotten half the airtime of Petraeus' failed marital strategy in Tampa, there...

Some years ago, a British engineering firm Atkins proposed an extravagant design for a five-star hotel located deep within a 100-meter, abandoned and half flooded pit near the base of Tianmashan Mountain in the Songjiang District of Shanghai. Construction on the 19-story, 380-room Shimao Intercontinental Hotel finally is already underway. Initially the hotel was expected to be completed by May, 2009, but construction commenced only in March early this year. The innovative design of the luxury resort hotel stands two levels higher than the rock face of the 100 meter deep quarry and includes underwater public areas and guestrooms. Instead...

Remembering Thanksgiving Day The Mayflower 1620- 2002 The voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 from Plymouth England, to Plymouth Rock started as a journey to find peace and justice in a new world. It began as a fervent prayer to give freedom a chance, and remains today as the promise each year for a new beginning. Thanksgiving Day is a celebration of hope, and remembrance. Today, we bring our families and friends together to share our tables and our hearts, and give thanks for all that we have to be grateful for in our new and glorious country. From this...

<p>MIAMI (AP)— Millions of food stamp recipients in 10 states were unable to use their debit cards for about six hours Friday after an outage at JPMorgan Chase.</p> <p>Bank spokesman Mike Fusco apologized for the inconvenience and said the technical glitch was resolved around 1 p.m. Friday, but he declined to discuss details of what exactly went wrong.</p>

Benghazi And Petraeus: Too Many Obvious Questions And Too Many Non-Answers, as Col Snodgrass lists them. The Obama administration is obfuscating the truth about the Benghazi and Petraeus issues. There are too many obvious questions and too many non-answers. There are at least 22 key questions that need to be answered. 1. Why was security for the U.S. mission in Benghazi so totally inadequate after the U.S. ambassador repeatedly requested that it be increased and improved following recurrent jihadist attacks against Western diplomatic and Red Cross activities in the area and because of the well-known and growing presence of al...

I went to buy some Ho Ho’s but they were gone, and so was a part of America. When I heard that Hostess was declaring bankruptcy it made me sad. Probably not as sad at the 18,000 people that used to work for them but it did affect me. Oh, I knew that I was partly to blame. When I was a child I would gobble down Ho Ho’s and chocolate cupcakes with abandon. I could burn through a half of a box of Ho Ho’s and a half gallon of Vitamin D milk in about 15 minutes. My elementary...

After the 9/11/2012 murders of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama Administration was in full covereup mode. They required that someone go on five 9/16/2012 Sunday talk shows to make the case that our diplomats had died because of a YouTube video and not a terrorist attack. The Administration did not want to pick an individual familiar with any aspect of Benghazi. He or she would have been subjected to challenging questioning (?) beginning with, "What did you know and when did you know it?" So United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice was trotted out. Her relatively clean hands allowed...

Kaiser Permanente officials have confirmed 530 union employees in Southern California have been laid off. At least 85 position were eliminated at the Fontana and Ontario medical centers, officials said Friday. Officials at the health-care provider did not release the locations of the other 445 positions. The layoffs do not include physicians.

Is it "fair" that the federal government be able to take more than half the wealth created by estates of more than $3.5 million at the time of death? Of course it is, says the left - even if 97% of farmers and ranchers will be impacted. Fox News: ****** Two decades ago, Kester paid the IRS $2 million when he inherited a 22,000-acre cattle ranch from his grandfather. Come January, the tax burden on his children will be more than $13 million. For supporters of a high estate tax, which is imposed on somebody's estate after death, Kester is...

The networks had barely called the election for President Barack Obama before GOP elites rushed to embrace an amnesty for illegal immigrants. Getting killed almost three-to-one among Latino voters understandably concentrates the mind, but it’s no reason to lose it. The post-election Republican reaction has been built on equal parts panic, wishful thinking, and ethnic pandering. It’s one thing to argue that amnesty is the right policy on the merits. It’s another to depict it as the magic key to unlocking the Latino vote. John McCain nearly immolated himself within the Republican party with his support for amnesty and did...

Mark Suben, the Cortland County district attorney, said today he acted in pornographic movies in the 1970s. In a 3 p.m. news conference today, he admitted that he lied about his history to The Post-Standard and other news operations in the days before the Nov. 6 election. He was re-elected to a second term. He said he would continue as district attorney. After he was done, he walked out without responding to reporters' questions. Suben is a Democrat. He defeated Republican defense attorney Keith Dayton 9,815-7,507, according to unofficial results. Speaking from a conference room in his private-practice law office,...

Updated at 8:32 a.m. ET: TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel was prepared to substantially broaden its operation in the Gaza strip, the country's prime minister said on Sunday. "The Israel Defense Forces have attacked more than 1,000 terror targets in the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting. "We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation." He gave no specifics and made no mention of the possibility of a ground offensive. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama said he fully...

Commissioner Tod Mowery is a Republican who was charged with overseeing Saturday’s vote tabulation in the District 18 race. Mowery is the vice-chair of the board of county commissioners in St Lucie County. After a full 12 hour day of counting, the poll workers finalized the bulk of the work, and plan to be back at 8 a.m. to finish up and announce the results. Mowery talked about the process in an interview with BizPac Review. He expressed a desire to restore public trust in his county’s voting system. Despite the 304 ballots found at the end of the night...

Hostess employees in Nash County, North Carolina on Friday were relieved that they would lose their jobs because union workers would not agree to an 8-percent pay cut, which was approved by a bankruptcy judge, and end their strike, which crippled the company's factories across the United States. Their reactions were surprising, because Nash County has an unemployment rate of 11.1 percent. Lamont Phillips, an employee, said the company had been, “holding this over our head for a long time,” and he was relieved he did not “have to deal with that anymore.” “They always hold that over our heads,...

Feds ‘going down every rat hole’ in Jesse Jackson Jr. probe: sourceBY NATASHA KORECKI Political Reporter November 15, 2012 8:24PM **SNIP** Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reported last week that Jackson is in the midst of plea discussions. “No one has pled guilty, but plea discussions are ongoing,” a source told Sneed. Meanwhile, investigators are also examining what role the congressman’s wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th), played in the finances, but the source described the inquiry into her so far as a “normal” part of investigating a main target. **SNIP** Jackson was temporarily back in Washington last month when he was...

p>The Talk Shows November 18th, 2012 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Scott Walker, R-Wis.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Lindsey Graham R-S.C.; Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Raul Labrador.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John McCain, R-Ariz., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich..STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Durbin; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Reps. Tom Price, R-Ga., and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger,...

In late October, an FBI agent and whistleblower brought a story of possible Bureau corruption to Republican House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor. It was a story of Obama Regime operatives deliberately sacrificing the national security interests of the United States for the president’s political gain. And what did the Republican house leader do with that information which—10 days before the election–could have shown that Barack Obama placed his own political advantage above the security of the nation? Why naturally he took the story to just one person–Obama appointee, FBI Director Robert Mueller, the very man who would have been responsible...

White House denies allegations of scrubbing terror threat from CIA Libya accountPublished November 17, 2012 FoxNews.com The White House denied allegations Saturday that it scrubbed terrorist involvement from original CIA talking points on the fatal Libya attacks – part of a weekend back and forth in which both parties continued to defend their positions. White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said only one minor change was made by the Oval Office. "The only edit that was made by the White House and also by the State Department was to change the word 'consulate' to the word 'diplomatic facility,'...

AFGE to Congress: Oppose Any Cuts to Federal Employee CompensationNov. 15, 2012, 11:54 a.m. EST WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The largest federal employee union--the American Federation of Government Employees--is urging Congress to oppose any additional cuts to federal employee compensation during deliberations to address deficit reduction. **SNIP** "Federal employees have given up $60 billion (over 10 years) in the unprecedented two-year pay freeze, and the 0.5 percent raise delayed to April 2012 saves an additional $28 billion. That's a total of $88 billion," Moten added. "Adding the $15 billion in savings from the UI bill's 2.3...

How ObamaCare will keep unemployment high — by forcing small companies to cut their workforce to fewer than 50 peopleBy MICHAEL TANNER Last Updated: 4:32 AM, November 18, 2012 **SNIP** Under ObamaCare, employers with 50 or more full-time workers must provide health insurance for all their workers, paying at least 65% of the cost of a family policy or 85% of the cost of an individual plan. Moreover, the insurance must meet the federal government’s requirements in terms of what benefits are included, meaning that many businesses that offer insurance to their workers today will have to change to new,...

Thousands of people rallied in Paris and across France on Saturday to protest a government bill that would extend marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples. March organisers said marriage required "one dad and one mom for every child." Opponents of a bill that would open up civil marriages and adoption to same-sex couples in France marched in the country’s main cities on Saturday to protest what they call a “major and dangerous upheaval”. Protesters took to the streets of Rennes, Nantes, Dijon, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse to participate in the so-called “Demonstration for All” rally organized by conservative...

Back in 2011, the Obama White House earned some mild mockery for its “win the future” slogan. But now that the president has been re-elected, the liberal conventional wisdom is that the Democrats have done just that — that Republicans are now Radio Shack to their Apple store, “The Waltons” to their “Modern Family,” a mediocre Norman Rockwell to their digital-age mosaic. Maybe it’s too soon to pierce this cloud of postelection smugness. But in the spirit of friendly correction let me point out some slightly more unpleasant truths about the future that liberalism seems to be winning. Liberals look...

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the emergency call-up of up to 75,000 reserve troops ahead of a possible ground offensive. Israel has massed thousands of troops and dozens of tanks and armored vehicles along the border in recent days.

A House committee has launched an investigation into whether EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used an email alias to try to hide correspondence from open-government requests and her agency’s own internal watchdog — something that Republican lawmakers said could run afoul of the law.The science committee has asked Ms. Jackson to turn over all information related to an email account under the name of “Richard Windsor,” which is one of the aliases identified by a researcher looking into the EPA.The committee has also asked the White House’s lawyer and EPA’s inspector general to look into the matter and report back by...

The trajectory of conflicts like these are fairly clear. Israel bombs some terrorist targets and then launches a ground incursion into Gaza to suppress terrorist activities. But the Obama Administration is already working against a ground offensive behind the scenes, as a New York Times report mentions. Obama supposedly called Netanyahu to discuss options for “de-escalating” the situation, but all those options are going to involve signing on to another meaningless cease fire while Hamas continues carrying out attacks, on and off. Netanyahu has made calling off a ground operation contingent on an end to rocket attacks. Which Obama isn’t...

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that world leaders are beginning to fly into the Middle East in an effort to halt the violence that exploded last week between Gaza and Israel, and those that can’t fly in are weighing in remotely. Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar are already working on an agreement, according to reports, and now UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon and various European leaders are beginning to lend their voices to the endeavor, as well.

Faculty at fourteen Pennsylvania state universities voted Friday to authorize a strike if contract negotiations fail to reach an agreement in coming weeks. No one is on strike yet, but professors and coaches voted overwhelmingly that the union should be allowed to call one if progress is not made. Of the 6,000 ballots cast, 95 percent voted to authorize a walkout.

Joling with weekend news guy. Guess they like him now that he helped Obama.

Police stationed along Texas border fight endless battle against drug trafficking and human smuggling: NBC NATIONAL NEWS — Brooks County, Texas is a less than five-hour drive from Houston, but the rural community of just over 7,200 people is facing an overwhelming amount of crime. High-speed chases, smugglers and a rising body count has become a fact of life in a county made up largely of ranchers and farmers. "We have a lot to contend with," said Brooks County Chief Deputy Urbino Martinez. "It takes a toll." Houston's connection to this rise in crime can be clearly seen in the...

The House Science Committee is investigating whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson used the secret email alias "Richard Windsor" to hide internal communications from government watchdogs—an action that may violate open-records laws.

ALBANY — City Treasurer Kathy Sheehan has officially announced her candidacy in next year's mayoral race. Sheehan, 48, who was elected treasurer in 2009, had long dropped hints about a planned mayoral run. On Saturday afternoon, in front of Washington Park's Moses Statue, the Democrat made it official. "Let's face it: There is only one office in Albany that can deliver the changes many of us want," Sheehan said. "I am here to announce that I am running for mayor." Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Sheehan-to-make-a-run-for-mayor-4046442.php#ixzz2CXwLxZ3I

Hizbullah’s leader said on Saturday that any attempt by Israeli forces to launch a ground assault against Hamas in Gaza would be a miscalculated step. “The Israelis will commit a stupid mistake if they decide to launch a ground operation against Gaza,” Hassan Nasrallah said during a live speech on Saturday, according to a report in NOW Lebanon. “The resistance in Gaza has acquired power, determination, and planning capabilities and has filled [strategic] gaps,” he claimed. Nasrallah also said that firepower possessed by Hamas terrorists was putting Israelis increasingly on edge.

On Friday, Scott Whitlock reported ABC's Good Morning America reported the morning show milked the 18,000 jobs lost in the shutdown of Hostess for laughs. The same laughing at pink slips occurred Saturday on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Players were given a question after NPR newscaster Karl Kasell asked in a low growl "Where are you, you spongy yellow delicious bastards?" Host Peter Sagal explained Kasell was delivering a Woody Harrelson line about Twinkies from the movie Zombieland. After a contestant answered that it was Hostess that shut down this week, Sagal started the...

Per FACEBOOK, the latest on the Allen West recount. For not stated reason, the recount is now shutting down for the night and set to begin tomorrow at 8 am. The recount deadline is tomorrow at noon. If anyone has any updates, please post them here.

Heh. Too funny to pass up, and sadly apt given the Mittster’s “the president exudes an air of likability and friendliness, which is endearing” nonsense. Cruz said that conservatives failed to make their case to the American  people, leaving Romney no choice but to move toward the president. “We didn’t  win the argument, we didn’t even make the argument” throughout much of 2012,  Cruz said.But in the first debate, he argued, that changed.“It was the one time we actually contested ideas, presented two viewpoints  and directions for the country,” he said. “And then inevitably, there are these  mandarins of politics, who...

ARBIL, Iraq – The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region has ordered its peshmerga security forces on high alert, a statement issued on Saturday said, attributing the move to clashes with central government forces. An Iraqi general however said that the clashes in question came during an arrest attempt and did not involve the peshmerga. Tensions between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq have been running high after the establishment of a new military command covering disputed territory, and over various other long-running disputes. Kurdistan president Massud Barzani called “on the peshmerga forces to exercise restraint in the...

AGUJITA, Mexico — They may be known for flashy cars and state of the art weaponry, but Mexican druglords have found an earthy new source of wealth: dirty old coal. They are mining it themselves in a coal-rich area along the US border or buying it from small mine operators, then reselling it to a state-owned company at fabulous margins that can see them make a profit 30 times greater than their initial investment. Along the way, besides the earth's black bounty, the druglords are seeking to reap credibility as legitimate business people. First word of the Zetas drug cartel's...

Mitt Romney was one amnesty for illegal immigrants away from becoming president of the United States. That, in essence, is the conventional wisdom following an election in which the Republican presidential candidate lost the Hispanic vote by an eye-popping 71 percent to 27 percent margin. MSNBC political analyst Chuck Todd predicted last week that “immigration reform” will get “80 to 90 votes” in the U.S. Senate after the GOP’s great Latino lashing of 2012.

Next week may be Black Friday but sweets lovers across the nation hung their heads in sorrow on a dark Friday yesterday as Hostess announced they would cease making their line of products, which include the iconic Twinkies brand, because of the Bakers Union Strike. But now as the brand heads towards liquidating and selling off their assets, a Mexican company may be angling to resurrect the golden Twinkies. According to the Christian Science Monitor, while food producers ConAgra and Flowers Food, the American company behind Nature Valley granola, have expressed interest along with Little Debbie baker McKee Foods, MexicoÂ’s...

Why so much violence against the tongue? As the Sheikh of Islam himself: Ibn Tamiyyah, once wrote, "Waging war verbally against Islam might be worse than waging war against it physically." A professor of Islamic exegesis at Cairo's preeminent Islamic university, Al Ahzar, Dr. Abdullah Badr, recently proclaimed on Egyptian television that a new day has arrived: apparently from now on, there will be absolutely no more toleration for anyone who speaks against Islam—including people who speak against the implementation of Sharia law and its seventh century punishments. Badr is currently on trial for possibly libeling and defaming a female...

The force field protecting Jirayut Latthivongskorn comes from a glossy, federally issued work permit that wards off deportation and lets him get a job, overcoming the legal barriers that have long clouded his ambitions and shadowed his life. Mailed to homes in fast-growing numbers, the cards are changing the lives of about 300,000 young immigrants, a quarter of them from California, who took a leap of faith this fall by revealing their presence to the U.S. government. Latthivongskorn's plastic card, with its 2014 expiration date etched between his fingerprint and photograph, symbolizes what he calls his "two-year lease on life...

On November 9, 2012 the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) issued a press release indicating that “Workers at the Transportation Security Administration made history today when they voted to ratify the first-ever collective bargaining agreement at the agency. The agreement between the American Federation of Government Employees and TSA was ratified with a vote of 17,326-1,774.” The AFGE represents over 650,000 employees of the federal government. It is the largest union for non-postal federal employees and the largest union for D.C. workers who report directly to the mayor. Brian Koenig writes that the AFGE “coerces members to fork over...

"We have to start electing people who look like their communities..."

Former CIA Director David Petraeus stoked the controversy over the Obama administration's handling of the Libya terror attack, testifying Friday that references to "Al Qaeda involvement" were stripped from his agency's original talking points -- while other intelligence officials were unable to say who changed the memo, according to a top lawmaker who was briefed.  Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News that intelligence officials who testified in a closed-door hearing a day earlier, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Acting CIA Director Mike Morell, said they did not know who changed the talking points. He said they...

As the IDF’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza continues, Hamas has made several totally false claims about damages it has supposedly done to Israeli cities and soldiers. This is done in order to give the public in Gaza a false image as though Hamas is defeating Israel. In response, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has put together and distributed several videos which present the truth and disproves the Hamas lies. Among other claims, Hamas said its missiles directly hit Tel Aviv. In fact, despite sirens having been sounded in Tel Aviv in recent days, there were no direct hits on...

In yet another Daily Beast column that trains her fire on the Right, Meghan McCain hits Republicans with yet another set of MSNBC talking points that she swears are only for our own good. But this time she's making threats: "If I don’t see some changes in the next four years, I’m going to consider registering as an Independent in 2016." Oh, no. Not that.

As many as 1000 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) workers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are considering going on strike on Thanksgiving eve in what is the busiest travel day of the year. Andrew Gross-Gaitan, the director of the Southern California Airports Division of SEIU, said the protest would be in response to an LAX contractor that failed to comply with the city’s Living Wage Ordinance.

They are supposed to be prepared to handle most anything, yet a harmless lizard managed to scare the daylights out of U.S. Secret Service agents preparing a residence for President Obama's trip to Thailand. Thai officials, however, reassured the U.S. Secret Service that the massive lizards found on the Government House grounds were not the dangerous Komodo dragons, but the harmless, lazy water lizards.

the estate tax -- also known as the "death tax."... set to soar at the beginning of 2013 ... The estate tax dates back to 1916 when then-President Woodrow Wilson imposed the tax of 1 to 10 percent on the wealthy because World War I reduced federal government revenues. Under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the tax rose to 77 percent, as Congress tried to prevent wealth from becoming concentrated among a few powerful and super-rich families. Ironically, many nations historically more concerned with class and wealth -- namely Russia and China -- have since abandoned their estate taxes.