Free Republic

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison will take part in a Capitol Hill hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D. C., on Thursday, Feb. 16. The hearing will focus on the issues of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience in relation to the Obama administration's recent health-care ruling regarding contraceptives. The panel also will include Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist and Jewish leaders. The Rev. John T. Pless, who teaches theological ethics and is an assistant professor of Pastoral Ministry and missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, and Ann Stillman, vice-president and general...

Rick Santorum continued to lambaste President Obama's healthcare policy during a Tuesday night campaign stop in Boise, Idaho, labeling members of the administration as "elite snobs." "They don't believe you can make these decisions," Sanatorium said to a packed high school auditorium. "They need to makes these decisions for you because if you were left to make decisions you will obviously jump off a cliff.

Agency name Virginia Department of Health Virginia Administrative Code (VAC) citation 12VAC5-412 Regulation title Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities Action title Establishes minimum standards for facilities performing five or more first trimester abortions per month.

Agency name Virginia Department of Health Virginia Administrative Code (VAC) citation 12VAC5-412 Regulation title Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities Action title Establishes minimum standards for facilities performing five or more first trimester abortions per month.

WKYT Audrey Rowe is visiting schools all over the nation. “Everything we can do.. to make food taste good,” Rowe told students at Elkhorn Middle School in Frankfort on Wednesday. The USDA official from Washington, DC got a first-hand look…and taste of school lunches in Kentucky. “I think we can make it to where one day you’ll say ‘that lady was here and I like this food now.’ That’s what I’m working on,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRpwxp_qtZA&feature=player_embedded

Democrat Ballot Challenger called as he was walking out of the court house in Tallahassee …. Posted by By GeorgeM at 15 February, at 22 : 53 PM Mike Voelz called me a few minutes ago to say that he was feeling “relief and excitement” upon completing his filing of a Florida Ballot Challenge to Obama. He had been studying FL statutes for two years and is a registered Democrat. He remarked that he was pleasantly surprised at how simple it was to file and how friendly they were. He said that they asked him for his BAR number and...

Wireless start-up LightSquared plans to fight the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) move to reject its proposed nationwide 4G network, a company official told The Hill. Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared's vice president for regulatory affairs, said the company will file a formal comment with the FCC urging the agency not to follow through on its proposal to "indefinitely suspend" LightSquared's authority to operate cell towers. The FCC announced the decision Tuesday night after the president's top adviser on telecom issues concluded there is "no practical way" to prevent LightSquared's network from disrupting GPS devices, including those used in flight safety. When...

Charles Kadlec writes in Forbes Magazine about last week's governmental overreach into Americans' lives and liberties. If you don't know by now that the State has ordered the Church to violate its principles, and religious believers to violate their consciences by complying with an ObamaCare diktat to actively cooperate with evil, you are asleep at the wall of separation. To be fair, the President has only overreached into traditional Americans' lives and liberties, on behalf of Left-wing, revolutionary Americans and their radical feminist ideology. It's not as if he's acting the tyrant without someone's support and encouragement. Revolutionary Lefties don't...

Former Attorney General Ed Meese says the Obama administration’s “disdain for Congress” and its efforts to consolidate power within the executive branch through the use of “czars” makes it “as close to a monarchy as since the days of George III.” “In what was purported to be the most transparent and the most law abiding administration in history, as the president said when he was inaugurated, has now sunk into the least transparent and the most disdainful of the Constitution as we’ve ever seen,” Meese said during a panel discussion Tuesday sponsored by the American Action Network

When U.S. special agent Jaime Zapata was shot dead one year ago on a notorious stretch of highway in central Mexico, he was driving a $160,000 armored Chevy Suburban, built to exacting government standards, designed to defeat high-velocity gunfire, fragmentation grenades and land mines. But the vehicle had a basic, fatal flaw. Forced off the road in a well-coordinated ambush, surrounded by drug cartel gunmen brandishing AK-47s, Zapata and his partner, Victor Avila, rolled to a stop. Zapata put the vehicle in park. The door locks popped up. That terrifying sound — a quiet click — set into motion events...

BOSTON (CBS) – The national health care reform law requires insurance companies to cover 100% of the cost of screening tests for dozens of potentially deadly diseases. But thousands of patients are finding out the hard way that free doesn’t always mean free. When Jim Dungee had his first colonoscopy, doctors found several polyps, which are a precursor to colon cancer. “Therefore, I had to come back in three years,” he said. The three year mark was back in December. Knowing the test could save his life, Jim did not hesitate to make an appointment. He even called his insurance...

On February 7th, Coach is Right posted a story reporting John Boehner was involved in an under-the-table negotiation with Attorney General Eric Holder to arrange a “mutually acceptable conclusion” to the Congressional investigation of Operation Fast and Furious. (1) Originally broken by Mike Vanderboegh on his Sipsey Street Irregulars website, it was reported that the Department of Justice would provide Boehner and Republicans the heads of DOJ higher-ups Lanny Breuer and Jason Weinstein along with assorted minor players and in return, the GOP would drop House and Senate committee investigations, giving Eric Holder and Barack Obama a pass on their...

Last week, Michel Marizco, writing for Fronteras, revealed what those of us who demand that the government be held accountable for its crimes have been saying all along. Operation Fast and Furious was not, contrary to what the administration and its apologists would like us to believe, a "rogue operation," conducted by an out-of-control Phoenix Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) field office, along with the U.S. Attorneys Office in Phoenix, without knowledge of those higher in the Department of Justice. It was instead a large, multi-agency operation--and indeed involved multiple cabinet-level departments. From the article: Newly released...

President Obama is touring a Master Lock factory in Milwaukee on Wednesday to urge manufacturers to return jobs to the United States-- part of a wider plan by his administration to increase the number of domestic manufacturing jobs. "Right now we have an excellent opportunity to bring manufacturing back-- but we have to seize it," Obama intends to say, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.

On January 7th, at the Republican debate, George Stephanopoulos embarked on a sudden, unexpected, and bizarre series of questions about contraception and birth control. Most of the political pundits who watched this, were somewhat puzzled at the virtual harangue that Stephanopoulos went on, asking candidate after candidate to pin down their views -- even though birth control issues were decidedly not in the forefront. Then, President Obama and his brain trust picked a fight with the Catholic Church, demanding that they fund birth control and abortion services. When the Church rose up in anger, they compromised -- they only needed...

By now I’m sure you know that our WTF-2012 Campaign is in high gear. We were reminded at the staff meeting this morning that all senior Team-Obama staff are expected to get some skin in the game. Since I never got that raise Big Guy promised and I sure don’t know enough people with enough money to be a bundler, I had to find another way to get into the game.

>Last Friday, the White House announced that it would revise the controversial ObamaCare birth-control mandate to address religious-liberty concerns. Its proposed modifications are a farce. The Department of Health and Human Services would still require employers with religious objections to select an insurance company to provide contraceptives and drugs that induce abortions to its employees. The employers would pay for the drugs through higher premiums. For those employers that self-insure, like the Archdiocese of Washington, the farce is even more blatant. The birth-control coverage mandate violates the First Amendment's bar against the "free exercise" of religion. But it also violates...

Testifying before Congress this morning, President Obama's acting budget director Jeffrey Zients directly undercut one of the administration's key legal defenses of its national health care law as it nears a hearing before the Supreme Court. In a hearing of the House Budget Committee Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., pressed Zients on whether the penalty that the health care law imposes on individuals who do not purchase health insurance constitutes a tax. Eventually, Zients said it did not. Snip Now the administration is making both arguments simultaneously. Before Congress, Zients is arguing that it is not a tax. But before the...

RUSH: There are some things happening today that are downright scary. The regime, led by Barack Hussein Obama, is weighing options for reducing our US nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80% in the number of deployed warheads -- 80%. Folks, this is staggering. Meanwhile, the Iranians are nuking up. Iran announced today that they're gonna cut off oil to six countries that have opposed its nuclear program, and more importantly, Iran also announced that they have installed domestically made nuclear fuel rods in their Tehran reactor. Now, if that's true, this is significant because the sanctions that...

The firestorm of controversy over the January 20th HHS mandate requiring Catholic and other religious organizations to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs for their employees shows no sign of abating. This is notwithstanding the Obama administration's "accommodation," announced last Friday, that will permit insurance companies to pass the cost of contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs along to Catholic and other religious employers - as long as they do so surreptitiously, of course. Catholics bishops and countless others have characterized this regulation as direct government interference with the free exercise of religion and thus unconstitutional. In this, they are...

Incentives: Doubling down on industrial policy failure, the administration decides to bump up the taxpayer subsidy for Government Motors' touted electric car. Who said its range wasn't enough to drive us to the poor house? Tucked away in the recesses of President Obama's 2013 budget, a budget that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will not bring to the Senate floor, is a nugget that speaks volumes about the troubles we're in: While delaying the Keystone XL pipeline, the administration plans to increase the subsidy for the Chevy Volt and other "new technology" vehicles to $10,000 per car. "We...

Unemployed Americans who started businesses last year was the lowest in at least a quarter-century. In 2011, 3.3% of out-of-work Americans started businesses, compared to 4.7% in 2010. But recent start-up activity is anemic compared to 1989 when 20.3% of unemployed were starting businesses. Until 1997, start-up activity was typically in double digits. “Basically, it was not a very inviting environment for would-be entrepreneurs,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “While big business definitely began to reap the benefits of the recovery in 2011, conditions were not nearly as fruitful for existing small business, let along...

Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.) had a nice gambit just now in a hearing with President Obama’s acting OMB director Jeffrey Zients. First he asked Zients if the Obama budget imposes any new taxes on Americans making less than $200,000. When Zients answered that it did not, Garrett followed up by asking if an individual making less than $200,000 a year opted not to carry health insurance, in contravention of the Affordable Care Act, is the fine associated with that decision a tax? After some hemming and hawing, Zients answered that the fine did not constitute an tax.

President Obama heads west today for a three-day, three-state swing aimed largely at filling the coffers of his re-election campaign and honing his message to supporters in key states. Obama will headline eight fundraisers across California and Washington through Friday night. The events are expected to net at least $8.6 million for the Obama Victory Fund. Much of Obama’s focus will be on mingling with some of his wealthiest – and most famous – supporters in Los Angeles and San Francisco, who will play a key role in underwriting his bid for a second term. Later he’ll dine with 80...

Gallup polled small-business owners (value under $20M) about their expansion plans in early January, which for some strange reason didn’t get reported until today. Among those who do not plan to hire — 85% of the entire sample — almost half of all such businesses cited expected costs from health care coverage and government regulation: U.S. small-business owners who aren’t hiring — 85% of those surveyed — are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly...

The active page has been pulled, but here is a screenshot of an earlier Politico report. The reporter claims that President Obama is showing his support of unions by flying a flag representing Wisconsin Local #1848.Sorry, lady. That is Wisconsin's State Flag.Donovan Slack is listed as Politico's "lead writer for '44', a living diary of the Obama presidency."

Decrying "a decade of deficits" on Monday, President Obama declared that "my budget lays out a path for how we can pay down these debts." It is hard to see how that can be true, since his plan would add $6.7 trillion to the national debt during the next decade. Obama thus begins his fourth year in office the way he began his first, preaching prudence while practicing profligacy. Back then, you may recall, he promised to cut the deficit, at that point estimated to be $1.3 trillion, "at least in half by the end of his first term," as...

El Presidente had issued is edict and it is out of the closet. "Let me be clear, I will do whatever I want, when I want, by passing Congress, the Courts, The Supreme Court, for the good of the American People, whether they want it or not. Sometimes, I must make the tough decisions for you. These decisions may be hard to swallow, like overspending, laying off military personnel, and crony capitalisim. Let me be clear. Parents know better than their children. Therefore I as your President, will do anything to hold onto power till the course I have laid...

While headlines yesterday crowed and complained of the small rise in the budget and the focus on taxing the wealthy - which admittedly given the peak polarization in political parties is unlikely to actually move into legislation anytime soon - JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest finds perhaps the most controversial part of the proposal hidden deep in the report. While the JPM CIO notes the CBO baseline and alternative scenarios, it is the difference between the $293bn benefit (CBO estimate from last year) and the Administration's new estimate of $584bn that caught his eye as buried on Page 73 of the...

Even the president of the United States and the NBA commissioner are "all-Lin." Commissioner David Stern called New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin's meteoric rise a "phenomenon," according to USA Today.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping praised the partnership with GM and China yesterday, congratulating the auto company for returning to its position as the number one automaker in the world in 2011. "Here I wish to congratulate General Motors for becoming world champion in car sales last year," Jinping said, hailing cooperation between the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and GM. "For two consecutive years, GM sales in China has exceeded its sales in the States," he added.

(AP) WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is weighing options for sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons, The Associated Press has learned. Even the most modest option now under consideration would be an historic and politically bold disarmament step in a presidential election year, although the plan is in line with President Barack Obama's 2009 pledge to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons. No final decision has been made, but the administration is considering at least three options for lower total numbers of deployed strategic...

President Obama released his FY 2013 budget [Monday] morning. By his own numbers, his budget raises net taxes over the next decade by $1.56 trillion (Table S-9, page 225). As a percentage of the economy, tax revenues would rise all the way to 20.1% of GDP in 2022, far higher than the historical tax revenue average of 18.3% of GDP (Table S-1, page 205). Here are some of the tax lowlights: All 20 of the new or higher taxes in Obamacare are assumed to take place. That means that there will be a 3.8 percentage point surtax on investment income....

WASHINGTON, February 15, 2012 – Each February, Americans enjoy a holiday to reflect upon the accomplishments of their Presidents. In this election year, the place to start is with the tenure of President Barack Hussein Obama. Back on Election Day 2008, some giddy enthusiasts were already considering where to place a likeness of Obama on the face of Mt. Rushmore along side the craggy visages of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt.

A poll taken Feb 1 – 5 shows that by a 58/ 37 margin “Catholics” support a government mandate requiring all employers who provide health care plans for their workers to include abortion and/or birth control coverage at no cost. Nevertheless, in spite of this 21 point edge some high profile “Catholic” Democrats are walking away from Obama on this issue. This begs an important question: Why would these CINO (Catholic In Name Only) abortion supporting Democrats be afraid to stand with Obama ? The PROOF that Catholics DON’T care is right there in black and white! It’s twenty one...

Over a year ago, I first warned that the Obama administration adopted a policy of refusing to enforce federal laws which require states to purge dead and ineligible voters from the rolls. I discuss at length the details of this policy as revealed to me when I worked at the Justice Department in my book Injustice. Today we learn that American voter rolls are infested with millions of dead and ineligible voters heading into the presidential election. Eric Holder and his Leftist political appointees at the Justice Department have gotten exactly what they wanted. The Pew Center on the...

Until now, Barack Obama has had some mildly good news on the economy, with weekly jobless claims sticking around the 350k-370K range and a boost in job creation in January. Unfortunately for Obama and all of us, the same problem that strangled the economy in 2008 and 2011 is about to hit the US again. NBC’s Today show reports on the significant price hikes coming in the price of gasoline:

"Linsanity" has descended on the White House. White House spokesman Jay Carney says President Barack Obama is tracking the exploits of Jeremy Lin, the sudden star of the New York Knicks. The point guard from Harvard has come out of nowhere to lead the team on a winning streak and he's captured widespread public attention. Carney says Lin's game-winning 3-pointer at the end of Tuesday night's game against Toronto was the subject of conversation with the president aboard Marine One on Wednesday morning.

In a major victory for the National Legal and Policy Center, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday reversed itself and revoked a controversial waiver it had granted LightSquared, which would have allowed the company to deploy a national wireless network. The reversal is not only a major setback for LightSquared's billionaire owner Phil Falcone, but puts a harsh spotlight on the role of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. According to Cecelia Kang of the Washington Post Tech blog : The FCC's decision is expected to all but end LightSquared's aspirations to provide mobile broadband services via satellite airwaves -- a...

While I’m sure Barack Obama loves to stick it to traditional religious institutions any way he can, he certainly doesn’t want to stick it to himself in the process. This is why I’m fairly sure he and his advisors didn’t anticipate that his contraception mandate would result in a knock-down, drag-out fight with the most powerful religious institution in the world. I think they miscalculated, and the reason why brings me to a link between the contraception issue and Islam. What is it? Simply this: The modern, secular-environment-weaned man is largely incapable of grasping the devoutly religious mindset. This is...

February 14, 2012 Palin on Obama's contraception controversy Former Alaska governor takes on president's 'accommodation' to the Catholic Church and why battle is not over

Obama and his campaign masterminds in Chicago are using the Recall against Gov. Walker in Wisconsin to ensure Obama’s re-election victory! Tea Party Express has been keeping you informed about the Obama Campaign’s covert strategy - it is a dangerous plan that aims to silence conservatives, while promoting Obama’s extreme liberal agenda, and it unfolds in front of us today. . . The White House has announced that Obama will be making a taxpayer-funded campaign trip to Wisconsin where he will take credit for Walker’s success in growing the state’s economy. He will probably go even further since his...

by John HillStand With Arizona The inmates are running the asylum. This Administration has served notice on every illegal alien invader across America: do not be afraid - you are above the law.Eleven illegal aliens who claimed ICE agents "violated their rights" in 2007 raids on their New Haven neighborhood have won a $350,000 settlement from the U.S. government, which also agreed to halt deportation proceedings against the plaintiffs, their attorneys said Tuesday. New Haven is American's most notorious "sanctuary city"- the first in the nation to offer identification cards to illegal immigrants, and critics including the mayor have contended...

n an interview with Atlanta's local Fox affiliate WAGA-TV Preisdent Obama explains why he was unable to cut the deficit in half in his first term, a promise he made as a candidate. Obama was lobbed the question by a sympathetic reporter who said he is getting "pelted in the media" for making a campaign promise he did not keep.

Iran has stopped oil exports to six European states in retaliation for European Union sanctions imposed on the Islamic state's key export, its English-language Press TV reported on Wednesday. "Iran cuts its oil exports to six European countries," Press TV reported. Press TV said Iran has stopped exporting oil to Netherlands, Greece, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. Brent crude oil prices were up $1 a barrel to $118.35 shortly after the announcement.

In 1849 and then again in 1852, the Catholic bishops of the United States petitioned the Holy See to grant the archbishops of Baltimore the title of “primate” of the Catholic Church in the United States: an honorific, to be sure, but one that implied that the head of America’s oldest Catholic diocese would enjoy a de facto preeminence as leader of American Catholicism. But the Vatican, nervous that an American “primate” would assert himself in some fashion against Rome, declined to bestow the title (although, interestingly, it didn’t cavil about the title “primate” being given to the archbishop of...

President Obama does not deserve to be reelected. By refusing to address the greatest challenge this nation faces – our financial security – Mr. Obama has failed the American people. Despite warnings from the IMF, the credit ratings agencies, China -- our principal foreign creditor -- and the American people, the president continues to offer up budgets and programs that ignore the dire trajectory of Medicare and Social Security spending, putting the future of this nation at risk. Let’s get specific. This week Mr. Obama set forth a budget calling for yet another trillion-dollar deficit, the fourth in four years....