Free Republic

INITIAL CLAIMS PLUNGE AGAIN TO 348K, HOUSING STARTS SURGE Joe Weisenthal Febuary 16, 2012 Good news all around. First there was a big beat on initial claims. 348K is another new low for the cycle. That's well better than the 365K that was expected. Housing starts was also much nicer than expected, at 699K vs. 675K (annual rate). That's nicely higher than the previous month's upwardly revised 689K. In fact that number is interesting, because the initial reading for December was 657K, so that's a major upward revision. According to MarketWatch, this is the fewest initial claims since March 2008....

Latest Levin show transcription. Hour 3. 2/13/12. We need to transcribe his radio program more often. Mark, enjoy Hillsdale. I pray for you, buddy, every single day by name. God Bless Mark Levin, keep him healthy, and give him strength and endurance and grace to lead and spread his word of liberty and peace. We need you. Stay well. God Bless and keep kicking ass.

...........Mr.Obama's insincerity on tax reform has been a giant missed opportunity. Mr. Romney is the get-it-done candidate. He could not only point to Mr. Obama's failure to act, but explain why—because it would conflict with the campaign of class resentment that he and his surrogates are so busy denying they intend to run on in the fall. Mr.Romney needs to do something. Mr.Santorum's rise is a telling rebuke—a "conservative" who hails from a blue state and yet who succeeded because he found a natural way to bridge the gap, thanks to his affiliation with unions and hard-hat workers. Yes, his...

Rick Santorum address crowd in Idaho.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – As politicians in both political parties debate Mitt Romney’s role in implementing a 2005 statute requiring Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts to dispense Plan B - an “emergency contraceptive” that studies and the pill’s manufacturer have suggested can cause early abortions - a leader in the state’s pro-life movement puts the blame squarely on the former governor. “The injury to the conscience rights of Catholic hospitals was not done so much so much by the church’s ideological enemies on the Left but by the Romney administration,” C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action...

The ATT Golf Tournament is now going on in coastal Monterey, California. For that reason numerous high-rollers and public figures are in town to rub elbows. The Monterey Conference Center is at the downtown Portola Hotel & Spa --my guess is that Tiger Woods is at The Lodge at Pebble Beach. However, Mitt Romney and many others were apparently staying or giving a talk at this Portola Hotel where they have just had a CHLORINE GAS INCIDENT in the hotel. They evacuated the whole hotel --I can see them outside in the rain over there, with numerous emergency vehicles outside...

The announcements flowed out of Rick Santorum’s Senate office: a $3.5 million federal grant to Piasecki Aircraft to help it test a new helicopter propeller technology; another $3.5 million to JLG Industries to bolster its bid to build all-terrain forklifts for the military; $1.4 million to Medico Industries to upgrade equipment for its munitions work. [snip]

One of the sad things about our country, for my money, is that our big shots, our movers and shakers, have become too passive. We especially see this in education. Our community leaders (in business, politics, the military, or whatever) should stand up to the Education Establishment and shout: “You are doing a lousy job! Millions of kids can’t even read.” But these “leaders” don’t seem to have a word to say. I can’t figure out whether our big shots have been intimidated by professors of education. That’s pathetic. Or our whole society has gotten old and lazy? That’s scary....

The Secretary of the Navy announced on Friday that a new littoral combat ship will be named after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The announcement comes the same day that President Obama signed the last piece of legislation sponsored by Giffords, a bill aimed at reducing drug trafficking along the American borders with Canada and Mexico. Giffords, who recently stepped down from office, was the target of a shooting rampage in early January 2011. “The name this ship bears and the story represented by that name will inspire all those who come in contact with her,” said Navy Secretary Ray...

Washington - Republicans should base their 2012 campaign on an agenda so bold and ambitious that victory would hand the party a transformational governing mandate, House budget chair Paul Ryan told a gathering of conservative activists here Thursday. "This election cannot be just a referendum on President (Barack) Obama's failed leadership," said Ryan, of Janesville. "Americans deserve a choice - a choice between two dramatically different visions for our country's future. As conservatives, we owe Americans that choice." The Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off its annual event Thursday, a mecca for presidential candidates, leading lawmakers, conservative celebrities and the...

"Which of our Hispanic leaders would you consider to serve in your Cabinet?" A woman attending the last Republican debate in Florida asked this of the four Republican rivals. Oh, for crying out loud! Ethnic-based Cabinet appointees? Do we still need to go out and "seek" people of a certain color or religion to show "fairness and inclusion"? What about considering the best people possible -- isn't that the only appropriate answer to that question? But Republicans go all Democrat, all too often, in front of black and brown audiences. They say things to show how empathic they are, rather...

RIVER BEND – Ongoing wrinkles in the relationship between some Craven County commissioners and the Craven County sheriff resurfaced at Monday night’s meeting and were magnified by a shortage in the inmate concessions account. Meeting in River Bend as part of Craven County’s 300th anniversary effort to take government to the people, Commissioner Scott Dacey brought to the board’s attention the shortage of between $9,000 and $10,000 in the account jail inmates deposit for purchases from the jail commissary. Commissioner Jeff Taylor highlighted problems in getting from the sheriff requested information on deputy high-speed pursuit training, vehicle use policy, and...

Participants in a recent shale gas energy conference held in Hobbs, New Mexico, referred to a whirlwind trip to Lea County, NM, as “exhausting” but “enlightening.” Bradford County Commissioners Doug McLinko, Mark Smith, and Daryl Miller, Susquehanna County Commissioner Mary Ann Warren and Pennsylvania state Rep. Tina Pickett were among local elected officials to partake in discussions and serve as guests on informative panels.

“Nancy Pelosi is not the issue this year. This upcoming election is about the presidential contest,” the aide said.

Some issues fade; others fester. The Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate for religious charities, hospitals and universities is the festering kind. The initial reaction concerned the rights of institutions. Catholic organizations naturally resent being forced to buy health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and drugs that can end a pregnancy soon after conception. The Obama administration seems to have calculated that, since contraceptives are popular and the Catholic Church is not, the outcry would be isolated. But religious liberty is also popular, given the Constitution and all that.

Paul Krugman Makes The Bull Case For The Economy In One Simple Paragraph Joe Weisenthal Febuary 6, 2012 Paul Krugman has a new column up with the dreary title: Things Are Not OK. The gist is simple enough: Despite the good employment report, things are still pretty horrible (in that we're very far from full employment) and yet because of the way politics are these days, there's a good chance that the good news will cause people to jump too fast towards austerity and monetary tightening. All that being said, this paragraph presents what is probably the clearest bull argument...

KEY SARKOZY ALLY: 'For Us, All Civilisations Are Not Of Equal Value' Adam Taylor Febuary 6, 2012Claude Gueant, the French interior minister and a key Sarkozy ally, has caused controversy after telling students "all civilisations are not of equal value". The speech was made on Saturday, and a copy of the comments were obtained by AFP. Amongst the comments made by Gueant, who is in charge of France's immigration policies, included: "Contrary to what the left's relativist ideology says, for us all civilisations are not of equal value." "Those which defend humanity seem to us to be more advanced than...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama says one of the toughest parts about being president is that his wife has been dragged into the "political realm."

Updated: *153* Bishops (Over 80% of Dioceses) Have Spoken Out Against Obama/HHS Mandate by Thomas Peters6 days ago In the past I’ve compiled a list of all the bishops speaking out on a particular controversial issue (for instance, over Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama) — here are the bishops who have spoken out against the Obama/HHS mandate.[See my ongoing coverage of Obama/HHS's war against religious liberty here, here, here and most recently here. I'm also tweeting more updates @AmericanPapist.]If I have missed anyone please let me know in the comments! And please double-check that your bishop really is not there before...

I made a comment there because they were contending he couldn't be President since he was born in the Philippines but both of his parents were and always have been American citizens (from Jacksonville, FL). As far as I know I think that makes Tim a natural born, US citizen. Since the Dems believe that American soldiers should be punished for risking life and limb and denied the right to vote so it wwouldn't surprise me they would try to deny the American born son of two American missionaries HIS rights as they were actually feeding the indigent in a...

*“Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin” ~ Book of Daniel, Ch. 5 ** By: Larry Walker, Jr. *The writing's on the wall! The massive decline of new entrants to the civilian labor force, which is shown graphically in the chart above, directly impacts the unemployment rate, making the employment situation appear far better than it actually is. If the 9.3 million workers who have effectively dropped out of the labor force, since the end of 2008, were instead of being excluded, counted as unemployed, the real unemployment rate would be 13.5% instead of yesterday’s published rate of 8.3%. Even if only...

Georgia judge today ruled that President Obama can be on the ballot in November. Possible result: Mitt Romney loses Georgia (GA) and its 16 electoral votes and thus loses a close election to Obama despite winning back Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida and 1 EV in Nebraska. Why? Unlike every state with high evangelical populations where Obama lost to McCain by double digits, Obama only lost GA by 5.2%. In other words, Romney could still win all the other states with "high evangelical populations" with lower evangelical turnout because he is so far ahead in party ID and...

Did you know that “bin Laden” is the vice president of the United States, or that the Civil War led to America’s independence? How about that Canada’s a state? Well, that’s what some local students at (what appears to be) a Washington state high school think. In a video that’s probably a few hours from going viral, a young man decided to question classmates for a video called “Lunch Scholars.” It is anything but scholarly.

* Leading with the chin. ** By: Larry Walker, Jr. *Mitt Romney argued haphazardly, in the January 26th GOP Debate, that he is pro-immigrant, because his father was born in Mexico. Ah, so that’s it. He shouted, "Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico...” That little proclamation was worse than his implication that Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts somehow help create jobs in America. When I heard the former, my first thought was, ‘what does that have to do with being pro-immigrant’? And upon hearing the latter, I laughed out loud.Was Romney’s father a Mexican...

[H]usband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul...marriage is a love that is total...[M]arriage must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of life...[or else] who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider most effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may impose their use on everyone. -Pope Paul VI, from the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" Everybody is guilty of some transgression against conservatism except Santorum. -Rush Limbaugh Just as President Obama announced his full-scale war on the Catholic Church, presidential candidate (and the only true conservative Catholic in...

There is the subtle, but ever-present socialist indoctrination that is gradually turning our kids into passive, submissive, obedient government serfs. From the time a child enters primary school they are programmed to group-think. Individualism is discouraged, along with awarding grades based on individual achievement.

The Republican primary campaign has highlighted the barely concealed contempt in which Mitt Romney holds the electorate, especially the Republican electorate. One adviser has expressed his astonishment that GOP voters fall for clowns like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich: >>>> “They like preachers,” the adviser said of the tea party demographic. “If you take them to a tent meeting, they’ll get whipped into a frenzy. That’s how people like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich get women to fall into bed with them.”<<<< That is an insult putatively directed at Romney’s rivals, but which reflects heavily on the voters themselves. Another...

January 30, 2012 Uncut: Presidential politics with 'The Donald' Donald Trump on the latest on his own presidential aspirations, the Fla. primary, who he might endorse, the nasty Mitt-Newt war of words and more

For Santorum Fans (click video to be taken to YouTube):

Insight - From darkest India, an enlightened leader PATNA, India (Reuters) - There's an apocryphal story about Bihar, a sprawling state on the Gangetic plains of eastern India that for decades held the dubious honour of being the most violent, poverty-stricken and corrupt in the land. A Japanese minister visiting in the 1990s, shocked at the decrepit buildings, the darkness at night even in the centre of town and the crumbling roads, declared that it was all solvable. "Give me three years," he told a state leader, "and I can turn Bihar into Japan." "That's nothing," came the laconic reply...

MOORE, Okla. - While he wasn’t carrying a wrench and a plunger, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber” — offered a pumped-up Tea Party crowd in Moore a lot of common sense and “Average Joe” ideas on a blustery Friday night. Sponsored by the Oklahoma City, Norman and Grady County Tea Parties, along with the Bott Radio Network, Wurzelbacher spoke before a large dinner crowd of Republican and conservative activists at First Baptist Church of Moore as part of the “Renovate Washington, Not the Constitution” political event, as a way to kick off the 2012 election season. Wurzelbacher,...

  Newt, Mitt, and Ron Speak Out on a Moon Base David C. Stolinsky Jan. 30, 2012 Newt Gingrich states that if he is elected, he will establish a permanent moon colony by 2020 and admit it as an American state.− News item Mitt Romney states that if a corporate executive proposed spending billions on a moon base in this economy, Romney would fire him.− News item Ron Paul states that the only people he would consider sending to the moon are politicians. − News item Gingrich, impulsive as usual, imagines a moon colony and wants to establish one...

CNN) - It’s a greeting that always makes Mark Jobe smile: “I really loved today’s Mass, Father Mark.” Jobe is the senior pastor of New Life Community Church, which has 14 campuses across Chicago and its suburbs. He said he hears those words at least once a month, usually from newcomers - Hispanics raised in the Catholic faith who’ve started attending his non-denominational Christian church.... Hispanic Catholics tend to vote Democrat by a two-to-one margin while Evangelicals and Pentecostals are evenly split between the two parties. Hispanic evangelicals and Pentecostals tend to be more politically active than Catholics, have higher...

In the end, the facts won't matter. The discussion of who is more vulnerable, who has the most or least baggage in the general election, whose history will hurt him more or less, whether Bain or the Fannie Mae situation will provide more fodder to the Democrats' political machine won't matter, even though we like to pretend they will. The Democrats are already engaged in a scorched-earth slaughter-fest, and the media acts as their advocate and champion; nuances of this or that that we Republicans spend time debating will have no place in the lead-up to the November election. In...

Madison - The Madison School District has released additional sick notes given to Capitol protesters last year that show two more doctors provided the excuses the district deemed to be fraudulent. Fifteen doctors who signed the notes have not faced sanctions from the state Medical Examining Board. The notes were written after hundreds of teachers called in sick last February, closing schools for four days. School district officials required the absent employees to provide notes documenting a doctor visit. The district docked pay from employees who didn't have a legitimate excuse. The protests erupted after Gov. Scott Walker proposed cutting...

The Los Angeles Police Department teamed with military special operation forces Wednesday evening to conduct multi-agency tactical exercises in the skies above downtown LA. Many questioned what was going on Wednesday night as a Black Hawk helicopter and four OH-6 choppers – or “Little Birds” – flew over the city, at one point hovering just above the US Bank building downtown and later flying low over the Staples Center as the Lakers played inside. Someone could be seen sitting inside an open chopper with his legs hanging off the side. Sky9 spotted the Black Hawk in the dark, making what...

If 501(c)(3) organizations were suddenly able to engage in partisan politicking, and donors were able to give on a tax-deductible basis, donors could ostensibly deduct currently non-deductible political donations simply by funneling these monies through churches. Churches would not only pass the collection plate for their religious mission, but churches would also be able to use these tax-deductible donations on behalf of particular candidates. Large churches could bankroll entire political campaigns and receive favorable treatment from those who support them. Politicians could visit with church pastors and lobby them for their campaign support. The lines of mutual respect between church...

Bill Moyers and former White House budget director David Stockman on how politics and high finance have turned our economy into a members-only private club.

I SWEAR I heard a deafening SILENCE when Obama said he wanted Congressmen and Senators to be prohibited from owning stock in companies that they have legislative influence over ... Or am I on drugz ???

Bill quotes Joe Paterno as saying he had never dealt with anything like this and didn't know what to do. Bill then condemns him for being afraid. But Bill won't say what Joe fears. Bill compares this to the scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. Bill then condemns the bishops for being afraid. But Bill won't say what the bishops fear. Bill himself is afraid: he doesn't dare mention "Homosexual." The "No-Spin Zone," it turns out is captive to political correctness. Bill is not the only moral coward. In all the reporting I've read on the Penn State scandal, none...

WASHINGTON — It's a lonely world out there, black conservatives said Monday, especially as they try to recruit more African-American voters to their ranks. Many black voters will quietly tell conservative African-American politicians that they support their social agenda, said Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., one of just two black Republicans in Congress and the organizer of Monday's panel discussion on black conservatism. But they don't end up voting with the Republican Party, said West, who invited about a dozen black conservatives to speak on his panel. Here's how J.C. Watts, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, put it for West:...

MADISON, Wis.— The Madison School District wants background checks on any poll workers in school buildings on election days. The city is looking into the time and cost required for background checks on more than 2,000 poll workers. City clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl says they also need to settle on the criteria that would be needed to pass a background check. Currently, poll workers take an oath and attend a training session. Never before has the school district asked for background checks. Assistant superintendent Erick Kass tells the State Journal (http://bit.ly/xWFr1e ) the district is trying to improve school safety based...

Former governor Tommy G. Thompson said Monday that he would not second-guess Gov. Scott Walker for taking steps to greatly limit collective bargaining for most public employees. Thompson, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), also indicated he would not support so-called right-to-work legislation in Wisconsin. Right-to-work legislation forbids forcing workers to join a union or pay dues in order to get or keep a job. It has emerged as an issue in other states, including Indiana. "I think that right now we do not need any further deterioration of labor-management relationships...

I ran into an older, retired Israeli colleague who is a fine scholar in his field. We hadn’t met for 25 years and agreed to have coffee in a nearby Tel Aviv cafe. In the ensuing conversation I learned some key things about why current intellectual and political discussion is such a wreck. The retired professor has read nothing I’ve written. He is on the left-wing politically, in the historic non-Communist sense, but his work has always been first-rate and untouched by any political slant. In addition, he has worked amicably with people of different views. And that’s why I...

Wisconsin lost about 3,900 private-sector jobs in December — the sixth straight month state employment has declined. But don't worry, the recalls can help fix all that. I don't mean by getting rid of Gov. Scott Walker — who has famously promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs by 2015 but who after a year in office can only point to about 13,500. Rather, last year's nine state senate recall elections and this year's likely recall elections for governor, lieutenant governor and four state senators represent Wisconsin's very own jobs package. Take the state Government Accountability Board's hiring of 50...

"I would like to know how you started the association, because our state could use such an association." "We need an organization such as the BFA for WA. can you give me any pointers on starting such an organization?" "Do you know if there is a similar organization to BFA in Michigan?" "This a great site is there something like this for Connecticut people?" As a volunteer for Buckeye Firearm Association, I help field some of the questions that supporters send to us via the website. As you can imagine, there is a wide variety, but the four quoted above...

Madison - State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman said Friday he would not step aside in three matters, including an attempt to reopen last year's decision that allowed a new law to take effect that curbed the power of public unions. Attorneys in the cases asked Gableman to remove himself because other parties in the cases were represented by Michael Best & Friedrich, which defended Gableman against an ethics allegation without billing him. Lawyers have said the legal work was likely worth tens of thousands of dollars. Now, the full court will have to decide whether to force Gableman from...

Round 15: GOP DebateBy: Larry Walker, Jr.The first three minutes of the January 19th CNN-GOP Debate was such a crock, that I turned it off, and caught up the highlights later on. In one less notable tirade, Mitt Romney exclaimed, "Mr. Speaker, you talk about all the things you did with Ronald Reagan and the Reagan Revolution and the jobs created during the Reagan years and so forth. I mean, I looked at the Reagan diary. You were mentioned once in Ronald Reagan's diary. And in the diary he says you had an idea in a meeting of young congressman,...

The largest joint US-Israeli war game in history, Austere Challenge 12, two years in the planning, was abruptly called off yesterday, setting off initial conjecture that the Obama administration is concerned about an imminent Israeli strike on Iran. The Israel Air Force (IAF) and the US European Command (EUCOM) were scheduled to launch the missile defense drill for the two countries this April. The war games were intended to reassure Israel and strike fear into Iran. In U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta's words, the joint missile drill was a sign of Washington's 'unshakable' commitment to Israel's security. Forget that. The cancellation,...

After having exhausted the indignant possibilities of protesting the extinction of whales, pelicans and polar bears, the left has found a new endangered species to be outraged about. Iranian nuclear scientists. It's one thing to hug a polar bear or a tree, but it's another to embrace an Iranian nuclear scientist, who may well be a jolly and colorful fellow with a family and a paint by numbers coloring kit of an atom, but also happens to be a participant in a plot to kill millions of people. The left which has all the moral sense of a squashed peanut...