Free Republic

Young Americans are faced with joblessness, skyrocketing school loans, and burdensome entitlement programs. Now, health care prices will be rising considerably, threatening “rate shock” on America’s consumers. Aetna is “cautioning that premiums for plans sold to individuals could rise as much as 50 percent on average and could more than double for particular groups such as the young and healthy,” according to the Washington Post’s N.C. Aizenman. For Aizenman, the question is not whether these hikes are justified, but whether young consumers will skip health insurance entirely–and take the penalty instead. “Most of the new rules that could push up...

Michael Moore is upset with the Republicans who voted against cloture on the Chuck Hagel confirmation: This from a man who knows a thing or two about weenies I’d say, from the looks of him.       So, exactly how many weenies did it take to block a Senate vote on the confirmation of a non-kosher Secretary of Defense? 40, this time. And what do you call 40 weenies, if you’re Michael Moore? A snack. All I can say is be careful there, my little friend, for a man is known by the company he keeps. I’d like to tell you...

epublican leaders in Congress predicted Wednesday that painful automatic spending cuts — the sequester, in Washington lingo — will hit at the end of the month, as scheduled. "I think the sequester’s gonna happen," Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of Senate Republican leadership, said at a Politico post-State-of-the-Union event. Indeed, Democrats and Republicans have made little or no progress on a compromise deficit reduction deal that would head off the across-the-board budget cuts, which would hit the Pentagon and social programs especially hard. President Obama warned in his address that allowing the sequester to hit would be disastrous,...

"Leaders of Organizing for Action, President Obama’s new nonprofit advocacy group, are courting his top campaign bundlers to be part of a high-dollar fundraising network that will help finance the work of the nascent organization. Bundlers will probably be asked to raised $500,000 to be part of the committee. Such top fundraisers will get perks in return. One reward that was floated as a possibility was an invitation to quarterly meetings with Obama." They’re “Organizing for Action”, but the action that they’re organizing for comes from the White House. This is no different than a candidate funding a grass roots...

The recent leak of a Department of Justice white paper on the legal justification for the use of drones to execute American citizens abroad accused of terrorism raises some very important constitutional and moral issues. Politicians should not decide the crime and the punishment for American citizens here or abroad. A trial by jury with a judge is a right to be prized by American citizens. Now, if you join al Qaeda, bear arms and attack U.S. forces, no one will argue that you still have a right to a trial. In the heat of battle, everyone understands that those...

Tony Kushner, the screenwriter behind the Oscar nominated movie 'Lincoln,' compared Barack Obama to the 16th president and called the defeat of Mitt Romney a "rejection" of the "Reagan era ideology" that leads to a "frightening" path of "psychotic individualism." Appearing on Thursday's edition of PBS's Charlie Rose show the openly gay playwright called Obama's evolution on same-sex marriage "Lincolnian" and roasted Ronald Reagan, Romney and the Tea Party: (VIDEO AT LINK) TONY KUSHNER: So you have people like these Tea Party people protesting government and then asked if they really want to give up their Social Security payments. And...

<p>‘I’m also issuing a new goal for America,” declared President Obama at his State of the Union on Tuesday. We’ll come to the particular “goal” he “issued” momentarily, but before we do, consider that formulation: Did you know the president of the United States is now in the business of “issuing goals” for his subjects to live up to?</p>

As reported here and here Dr. Taitz filed a petition with the Supreme Court for the Obama eligibility case Noonan v Bowen. The petition was referred to the full court and distributed for conference scheduled for February 15, 2013. Here is the initial order list for February 15th, 2013. The short list of granted petitions does not include Noonan v Bowen. Another list will be released by the SCOTUS on Monday or Tuesday. It is normal for them to release a short list of the granted petitions before they release a very long list of denied petitions. The longer list...

Making everyone else's Valentine's Day plans look lame in comparison, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama splurged with meal at Minibar last night. Obama Foodorama reports that the couple arrived via motorcade at the avant-garde Penn Quarter restaurant at 7 p.m. yesterday for a two-hour long romantic dinner. No doubt that's not an easy reservation to score at the 24-seatings-a-night restaurant, but given José Andrés' support of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign and that whole leader of the free world thing, it's probably not a problem. Reps at ThinkFoodGroup are deferring press requests to the White House, but Washingtonian...

A nice catch by the Examiner’s Charlie Spiering, especially after Rand Paul threatened to block Brennan unless/until he provides a straight answer on whether drones can be used against U.S. citizens here in the United States. This doesn’t quite qualify as a straight answer but it’s the closest we’ve come yet: “The rules outside of the United States are going to be different than the rules inside the United States,” Obama explained. “In part because our capacity to capture a terrorist inside the United States are very different than in the foothills or mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan.” I mentioned...

Russian nuclear bombers intercepted near Guam U.S. military officials tell NBC News that two Russian bombers, capable of carrying nuclear cruise missiles, circled the U.S. island of Guam in the Western Pacific this week. U.S. Air Force F-15 jets scrambled from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam to intercept the bombers. According to one military official, the Russian Bear bombers remained in international airspace, the encounter between the U.S. and Russian aircraft “stayed professional” and there was no incident. The official said it’s impossible to determine whether the Russian bombers carried any nuclear weapons.

I have been wondering lately about some of the stuff going on in the news and our culture. Out of the hundreds of reporters in the US, where is one report of what happened in Benghazi? Where is one investigating journalist digging into Fast and Furious? Out of the thousands of people who work in the State and Defense Dept, where is the whistleblower releasing damaging emails or memos? Is the corruption so deep that no one is going to do the rght thing?

On “The Daily Show” on Thursday, host Jon Stewart grilled United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice about the Obama administration’s response to the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year. Stewart pressed her to explain why there was so much back-and-forth between government agencies and why no one seemed to have the straight story. Stewart asked why there seemed to be more effort put into ironing out talking points rather than preventing the attack in the first place. As he put it, “Why is there a bureaucratic system in place that is so tenacious with the explanation, yet...

Unreal… Team Obama Leaves Americans Stranded in Libya; Military STILL on Standby Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, February 24, 2011, 5:07 PM The Obama Administration won’t send the military to rescue US citizens in Libya. They don’t want to look like war-mongers. Stranded: An estimated 600 U.S. citizens are stuck on board the Maria Dolores (pictured) in Tripoli, and won’t leave until at least Friday (Daily Mail)The Obama Administration is STILL grappling with whether or not to send the military into Libya to rescue US citizens.CNN reported, via HotAir: The senior U.S. official also said the “prudent planning” for...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told him "the president was informed of the April and June attacks." One of those attacks, in June, blew a hole in the perimeter wall of the Benghazi compound. The two strikes were among dozens of security incidents recorded in the region in the months preceding Sept. 11, and in hindsight have been described as warning signs.

It was one of the biggest applause lines in President Obama’s State of the Union address, drawing cheers from both sides of the aisle. “We’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples,” Obama said. “What makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one. And we want to encourage that. We want to help that.” Wonderful sentiment, but Obama’s signature legislative achievement creates such a powerful “financial deterrent” to marriage that even one former Obama administration official warns that ObamaCare will increase the divorce...

The White House confirms today that President Barack Obama will be vacationing in Florida this weekend. His wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, will be in Colorado. The two daughters will be with Michelle. From the White House press gaggle aboard Air Force One: Earnest confirmed that FLOTUS and her daughters are on a "ski trip out West with family and friends", and won't be with POTUS in Florida this weekend. While the rest of his family will be skiing, Obama is expected to be hitting the links with golf pros and buddies in Florida. Vice President Joe Biden and his...

I received the info below from FNC’s Thomas Firth but it caught my attention so I thought I would post it. Note that Facebook played it both ways (also giving to Repubs, including Gov Romney) but gave generously to President Obama (numbers below.) Why does Facebook give to both political parties? Just in case Republicans won and they would then want a cozy relationship with the Republicans…and because it can (it has a ton of money.) Note also the info about its lobbyists…check out the jobs they held before became lobbyists for Facebook. Read and tell me what you think.

A half-billion-dollar Obama Administration program to help nations comply with United Nations-sanctioned governance reform has rolled out its first round of awards to several government-contracting behemoths. The International Rule of Law Technical Assistance Services program, which Obama unveiled through the U.S. Agency for International Development, will assist governments around the globe in reforming their justice, educational, and other systems based on U.N. “rule of law” principles.