Free Republic

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged the world to insist on tough negotiations that ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon. Speaking to NBC News a day after his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu cautioned against Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's charm offensive, which he described as a strategy carried out to woo the West at the behest of the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. "[The Iranian people] are governed not by Rouhani. They're governed by Ayatollah Khamenei. He heads a cult. That cult is wild in its ambitions and its aggression," Netanyahu said. The prime...

For some individuals and families signing up for ObamaCare, a little fudging can make a big difference in their bank accounts. In California, for example, a childless married couple stating income of $30,000 would face a $1,000 deductible, $15 per primary care visit and a maximum out-of-pocket cost (after premiums) of $4,500. But for a couple attesting to $32,000 in income, the deductible would be $3,000, primary care visit $40 and out-of-pocket maximum a hefty $10,400. Though they are separated by just $2,000 in income, the government might provide the lower-earning family as much as $5,900 more in cost-sharing subsidies...

The UN's climate change panel is set to release a report next month that reluctantly concludes there has been no warming of the earth in at least the last 15 years. Fewer and fewer people are believers that climate change is man made. This hasn't stopped the Obama administration from releasing new rules governing "carbon pollution" at new power plants that would mean the virtual destruction of the coal industry.

The shock waves are reverberating throughout the Church and around the globe. Pope Francis has insisted that the Church founded by Jesus Christ must focus beyond "small-minded rules" or it may very well "fall like a house of cards." Translation: Doctrinal truths which the world finds offensive must be watered-down or pretty much ignored to accommodate the zeitgeist. Doctrinal truths constitute "small-minded rules"? Dr. Germain Grisez, in a talk entitled "Legalism, Moral Truth and Pastoral Practice" given at a 1990 symposium held in Philadelphia, had this to say: "Theologians and pastors who dissent from received Catholic teaching think they are...

OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told U.S. President Barack Obama that he's ready to work on joint plan between the two countries to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector in an effort to secure approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday. The CBC, citing unnamed sources, said Mr. Harper wrote to Mr. Obama in late August, signaling he is ready to accept carbon-reduction targets proposed by the U.S. and prepared to work with the White House to address concerns raised about Keystone and its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. A spokesman for Mr....

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting here late last week was starkly different from the gathering of its Republican counterparts earlier in the month. There were no surefire news-making speakers like Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey or former Speaker Newt Gingrich, nor was there consideration of any made-for-cable-news resolutions, like one that tried to bar a pair of television networks from sponsoring future presidential debates. Rather, it was a sedate gathering where routine party business was conducted routinely by national and state Democratic officials in a suburban Phoenix resort.

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents. Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

A somewhat offbeat sport, bowfishing resembles archery, except fishermen wield a hefty bow to target fish. Wisconsin has a regulation for that. Some fish are off-limits, but the restrictions aren’t always the same statewide, said Wilhelmson, a regional representative of the Wisconsin Bowfishing Association. “I’d like to be able to shoot catfish and I’d like to see the restrictions lifted from other parts of the state,” he said. The state’s bowfishing regulations, he said, are “goofy,” which aptly describes much of Wisconsin’s administrative code, key lawmakers say. Nursing homes, for instance, can be fined if the orange juice is off...

WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than 30 years, the Justice Department will revise its rules for investigations involving journalists to sharply limit the use of subpoenas or search warrants to obtain the phone records and e-mails of reporters. According to a Justice Department official, the new guidelines will say that in nearly all instances, news organizations will be notified in advance when federal agents are seeking their phone records as part of a broader investigation. Two months ago, editors at the Associated Press were surprised to learn that the FBI had secretly seized the dialing records

Ok, so I don't know if it came from a liberal town or not, but if I was a betting man...

Even though he is the commander in chief, there are some orders that even President Obama cannot give - as he found out today, much to the mirth of a put-upon U.S. Marine. Hosting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Rose Garden today, the president requested a standing Marine to open an umbrella and protect his head from the light rain that was falling. However, according to Marine Corps regulations, not even the President of the United States can request a serving officer to carry an umbrella without the express permission of the Commandant of the Marine Corps....

I hadn't noticed this before, but why is it that golfers sometimes (or is it all the time) when their ball is near the hole pick up their ball, then mark the spot with a quarter(?), then place the ball back down then take their shot? Why not just proceed with their shot from the get-go?

I’m a huge Tiger Woods fan. That’s why it pains me that he continues to do damage to his once-nearly-pristine image. Having recently reclaimed his sport’s ranking as World No. 1 – as the Euros put it – Tiger flew this week to Augusta, Georgia as the favorite to win the Masters. He acquitted himself rather well the tourney’s first two days, save for a mishap yesterday on the 15th hole. He hit an approach shot to the green that, as bad luck would have it, ricocheted off the flag pole and careened into the creek. After taking a “drop”...

I have a friend who recently joined Free Republic after an epiphany of realization that lead her to convert to a conservative virtually overnight, and now she's getting quite an education by reading FR. But she's frustrated because she can't join ping lists or send messages to people. Apparently newbies are blocked from doing a lot of things, but I can't find the rules written down anywhere. What are newbies forbidden to do, and for how long, and how do the restrictions get lifted?

My friend Jack pulled the car into a grassy clearing. We donned rubber boots, fetched a metal detector and digging tools from the trunk, and headed off along a game trail. Our mission: To dig up and test fire a pistol Jack had buried years ago. The trail disappeared into a wetland, which Jack crossed with confidence. The muddy water was only about six inches deep where he walked, but I couldn't see the bottom so I waded gingerly after him. It was at this point I discovered that my borrowed waterproof boots — weren't. I squished along after Jack....

For months, federal agencies and the White House have sidetracked dozens of major regulations that cover everything from power plant pollution to workplace safety to a crackdown on Wall Street. The rules had been largely put on hold during the presidential campaign as the White House sought to quiet Republican charges that President Barack Obama was an overzealous regulator who is killing U.S. jobs. But since the election, the Obama administration has quietly reopened the regulations pipeline. In recent weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules to update water quality guidelines for beaches and other recreational waters and deal...

Inhofe: Some Dems won’t ‘fall on the sword of Obama’ to defend EPA rulesBy Ben Geman - 12/02/12 02:47 PM ET Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) believes all is not lost in his push to thwart Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations despite President Obama’s victory and Democrats’ continued control of the Senate. Inhofe, one of Capitol Hill’s most persistent critics of EPA regulations on carbon dioxide and other pollutants, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that new political opportunities await EPA foes. “There are a lot of Democrats who are coming up for re-election in 2014 who are not going to...

The Obama administration issued new rules Tuesday that require insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions — one of the most popular provisions of President Obama’s healthcare law. The Health and Human Services Department also began to implement other popular, but expensive, parts of the Affordable Care Act. Regulations released Tuesday will prohibit insurers from charging women a higher premium than men, and will require plans in every state to cover certain services.

For the most part everything played out as I feared in this February 16th, 2010 article Coming Sequel to the Romulan-GOP Schism. The thesis of our party splitting our conservative votes over multiple candidates, thereby electing the ONE weak candidate in the race became the reality. The pundits of Fox News who are mainly responsible for this outcome are now telling us we need to further abandon the fundamental principles upon which our party was founded. We need to further -become- the Democrat Party to defeat them as though this were simply a sporting event devoid of any moral rectitude....

As many as 1,000 students at a New Jersey high school are expected to boycott their cafeteria today to protest the Obama administration’s new lunch guidelines that many teenagers say are leaving them hungry. Instead of purchasing their lunch in the cafeteria, many students at Parsippany Hills High School are brown-bagging it – upset over smaller portions and higher prices. “We’re asking everybody not to buy lunch or anything from the cafeteria,” student Brandon Faris told the Parsippany Patch. Faris, a 17-year-old senior and junior Nicholas Caccavale, organized the strike and more than 1,000 of their classmates have joined a

A judge ordered Thursday that Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in a 2009 deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, must shave or be forcibly shaved before his trial. Judge Col. Gregory Gross had said he would deliver a definitive order this week after a hearing to determine whether Hasan would be allowed to keep his beard, which he started growing while in jail earlier this summer. Gross barred him from appearing in military court, citing the Army’s strict regulations regarding grooming standards. Hasan's attorney, Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, said his client grew the beard as a “deeply sincere”

Hurricane Isaac isn’t the only storm developing in Tampa. The Republican National Committee is brewing up one of its own. Florida has a penchant for jumping in the gun when it comes to scheduling presidential primaries. We did it in 2008 and again in 2012. Republican National Committee rules provide that when a state moves its primary ahead of those of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the state forfeits half its delegates. That rule ended up reducing Florida’s delegates from 99 to 50 at Tampa convention.

Wisconsin --(Ammoland.com)- When Act 35 (Wisconsin’s concealed carry law) went into effect in November of last year there were “emergency rules” that were in place that defined the specific requirements of how the law would be implemented. These rules have been in place since November 1st and are the rules under which over 120,000 concealed carry licenses have been issued. The Department of Justice now wants to implement “permanent rules” that are different from the “emergency rules”. Most notably, the DOJ wants to limit class size for the state mandated “training class” that one must take before they may apply...

Maureen Dowd really, really dislikes Paul Ryan, resenting even the man's moderate demeanor for hiding what she is sure is "full-tilt virulence." Her Sunday column for the New York Times, "Beware a Beautiful Calm," not only extensively quotes that well-known political commentator Tom Morello (of the left-wing rock band Rage Against the Machine, which hasn't released a studio album since the year 2000), but diagnosed Ryan as psychologically "hysterical." What happens when you realize you are the machine you’re raging against? Tom Morello, the Grammy-winning, Harvard-educated guitarist for the metal rap band Rage Against the Machine, punctured Paul Ryan’s pretensions...

Money cannot buy you happiness... but it's more comfortable crying in a Mercedes than on a bicycle. Forgive your enemy- but don't forget the SOB's name Help a man in trouble... and he'll remember you (when he's in trouble again!) Many people exist in this world only because it's illegal to shoot them Trying to debate facts with an Obama voter is like trying trying to pick-up a cow pie by the clean end~ ___________________________________________ h/t Kirby

MADISON — The Legislature's rules committee voted Thursday to extend through mid-October temporary regulations that enacted Wisconsin's concealed carry law. The state Justice Department drafted the rules last fall to implement the Republican-authored law. The regulations allow anyone 21 years or older who can legally possess a firearm provides proof of training to apply for a concealed carry permit.

MADISON, Wis. -- State unions were dealt a setback Friday when a federal judge said they would have to get their members to opt in, rather than opt out, to having the state deduct union dues from their paychecks. What's more, the judge did not rule on dues deductions for unions that he earlier found the state improperly decertified. The state's largest unions were decertified, and the ruling -- at least for now -- will make it harder for them to get money from dues. But U.S. District Court Judge William Conley gave unions one beneficial ruling by saying that...

The Obama administration tightened rules on hydraulic fracturing Friday, requiring the disclosure of chemicals used in the process when done on federal and American Indian lands. The new rules will also require additional testing of oil and gas well construction and require the industry to have a management plan for the water used in the process. "This proposed rule will strengthen the requirements for hydraulic fracturing performed on federal and Indian lands in order to build public confidence and protect the health of American communities, while ensuring continued access to the important resources that make up our energy economy," the...

If Newt Gingrich fails to win five states, he might not be eligible in the first round of voting at the Republican National Convention. That doesn’t mean he can’t be the nominee, and it may not even complicate his chances any further than they already have been... [...] If no candidate wins on the first round of voting, primary and caucus results will matter progressively less. Some states’ delegates are bound by primary results only through the first round of convention voting. Others’ are bound through the second and third. If Gingrich enters the convention ineligible, he can still win...

On Wednesday, February 29th, an extraordinary emergency meeting of the State Republican Executive Committee was convened in Austin, TX. The purpose of the meeting was to consider adopting new rules in accordance with the San Antonio three-judge federal panel's instructions to propose a new way to pick delegates to the State Convention so as to allow for a May 29th or June 26th statewide primary date. As we previously reported, both the state Republican and Democratic parties reported to the Court that it would be impossible to comply with the current procedure for selecting delegates to state conventions and also...

House votes to roll back Department of Education rulesBy Pete Kasperowicz - 02/28/12 04:29 PM ET The House on Tuesday afternoon voted to repeal two Department of Education regulations, an act that Republicans said would help lower the cost of college for millions of students. Members approved the Protecting Academic Freedom in Higher Education Act, H.R. 2117, in a 303-114 vote. Despite Democratic complaints about the bill during floor debate, 69 Democrats joined all voting Republicans in support of the legislation. Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, argued on the floor that college...

House Republicans, and some Dems, press White House to kill climate rulesBy Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 02/23/12 03:38 PM ET More than 200 House Republicans and about a dozen conservative Democrats called on the White House Thursday to kill pending climate regulations, arguing they will impose huge costs on consumers. “Affordable, reliable electricity is critical to keeping growing jobs in the United States and such a standard will likely drive up energy prices and threaten domestic jobs,” the 223 lawmakers, including 14 Democrats, wrote in a letter to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) acting director...

Kids who open lemonade stands are now shutdown by police. I tried to open a lemonade stand legally in NYC. That was quite an adventure. It takes 65 days to get permission from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. With government adding 80,000 pages of rules and regulations every year, it's no surprise that regular people break laws without even trying. A small businessman spent 6 years in federal prison for breaking Honduran regulations (and, to make it worse, the Honduran government said he didn't). A family in Idaho can't build a home on their land because the EPA...

Some words to the wise... Valuable shooting advice from certified concealed-carry instructors: if you own a gun, you will appreciate this. If not, you might want to look into that- and learn how to use it: « Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians. « Its always better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six! « Cops carry guns to protect themselves, not you. « Do not allow anyone or anything that threatens you get inside an arms' length, ever. « Never say "I`ve got a gun."  If you need to use deadly force, the first sound they hear should...

Pelosi might have skirted House ethics rules on campaign solicitationsBy Russell Berman - 02/09/12 05:06 PM ET House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) might have briefly run afoul of congressional ethics rules at a Capitol press conference on Thursday when she made a statement that could be construed as a solicitation for campaign contributions. The Democratic leader was holding a briefing to promote a campaign finance disclosure bill when she said she was “asking people to contribute to us, if they want to elect more reformers to Congress.” House ethics rules prohibit members of Congress from soliciting campaign donations in...

"See below what I received from FNC Carl Cameron! This is really wild! More possible Florida election problems?" — Tampa, FL — Florida’s primary might not be over just yet. The Newt Gingrich campaign is gearing up to challenge the results of the florida primary based on the Republican National Committee’s own rules which state that no contest can be winner take all prior to April 1, 2012. (See attached RNC memo.) The Gingrich campaign plans to challenge Florida’s winner take all status & demand proportional allocation of delegates. Fox News has learned that Thursday, a Florida Gingrich campaign official...

Retailers warn economy will be slowed by new trucker scheduling rulesBy Keith Laing - 01/12/12 11:27 AM ET New limits on the number of hours truck drivers can work per week enacted by the Department of Transportation will put the brakes on commerce, the lobbying group for retail companies said Thursday. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association (FMCSA) announced last month that its new rules for trucker scheduling will limit the number of hours a driver can work to 70 per week. Under the old rules, truckers could drive 82 hours per week. The Washington-based National Retail Federation (NRF) said...

There are currently many news stories and blog discussions about the Virginia presidential primary ballot access law. Some large blogs, such as Red State, have over 300 comments about the story. Some defend the current Virginia ballot access laws on the grounds that in past presidential elections, a fairly large number of Republican presidential primary candidates managed to qualify. But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were not checked. Any candidate who submitted at least 10,000 raw signatures was put on...

Two grandparents were kicked out of the University Park Mall Tuesday after they took a picture of their visiting grandson in the Food Court. "We were going to take our grandson, he's five and visiting from California, to see Santa and we were just sitting around the table having something to drink, talking about what we were planning and that's when my husband took the picture," said Grandmother Debbie Cassella. Cassella said immediately a mall employee instructed them to stop taking pictures or they would be thrown out of the mall. "I believe she said you can't take pictures at...

In Wake of Indiana Petition Forgery Probe, New Rules Offered to Prevent FraudBy Eric Shawn Published December 14, 2011 | FoxNews.com Allegations that forged signatures may have put Barack Obama's name on the 2008 Democratic primary ballot in Indiana have prompted new proposals to prevent possible election fraud in the current race for the White House. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak, in South Bend, is investigating allegations that numerous names and signatures that put Obama and Hillary Clinton on the state’s presidential primary ballot in 2008 were fakes. Those allegations have led to accusations that Obama may not have...

In mid June, the union appointees within Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making on the procedures governing NLRB-conducted elections. Despite the fact that unions already win more than 60% of all secret-ballot elections and the median time frame between a union petition for and election and the election itself is 38 days, the proposed rule change would like shorten that time drastically, creating an “ambush” union campaign on targeted employers and employees. When the NLRB’s union appointees issued the notice, it was met with a tremendous outcry from America’s employers, as well as...

Reid defends Senate rules changeBy Daniel Strauss - 10/11/11 08:27 AM ET Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) defended his unilateral change to the Senate's rules in an op-ed published Tuesday. In the Washington Post op-ed, Reid says his decision last Thursday to change the Senate rules —informally referred to as the "nuclear option"— to stop Republicans from requiring votes on amendments once the Senate has voted to move the legislation to final passage has restored order to the chamber. "The Senate rule change we made last week has been inaccurately described, including by Marc A. Thiessen on this page,...

House passes bill forcing analysis, delay of pending EPA rulesBy Ben Geman and Pete Kasperowicz - 09/23/11 01:38 PM ET The House on Friday approved legislation that would set up an interagency committee charged with assessing the impact of Environmental Protection Agency rules on U.S. economic competitiveness, and also delay two EPA rules until several years that analysis is complete. Democrats railed against the bill throughout debate on Thursday and Friday, saying it represents the latest attempt by Republicans to advance an anti-environment agenda. But Republicans said the bill would not block any rule indefinitely, and that some economic assessment...

Due to new IRS rules, PayPal has started asking users to provide their tax ID number, which is either your Social Security number, Individual Tax Identification Number or your Employer Identification Number. PayPal says it will use your tax ID number to send tax Form 1099-K to you and the IRS when the payments you receive exceed both of these milestones in a calendar year: $20,000 in gross payment volume for goods and services 200 payments So for most occasional PayPal users, this change won’t be applicable, but you’ll still need to enter your tax ID just in case. Although,...

So far the U.S. government has bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the tune of at least $130 billion, and perhaps as much as $1 trillion. And yet, the Obama administration continues to stonewall the release of documents that could shed light on why Fannie and Freddie failed, thereby sending the economy into a tailspin from which we have yet to recover. (Those records are housed at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) now that Fannie and Freddie are owned and operated by the federal government.)

A suspected looter in this week’s riots and his mother are being thrown out of their council home. In the first case of its kind, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, and his mother have been served with an eviction notice as council bosses seek to turf them out of their £225,000 taxpayer-subsidised flat. Sartain-Clarke is charged with violent disorder and attempting to steal electronic goods from the Currys store at Clapham Junction, South London, on Monday night.

31 Days: Over the past month, the American people have been focused on jobs (9.2% unemployment), the economy (1.3% GDP), and debt ($14.3 trillion). Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has quietly moved forward regulations that are making it harder for the private sector to create new jobs. In July alone: Proposed Rules: 229 Final Rules: 379 Economically Significant Rules: 10 Regulatory Costs: Over $9.5 billion The President’s regulatory agencies kept rolling out more job crushing red tape: EPA: Transport Rule: $2.4 $billion Obamacare: Exchanges Rule: $424 million Dodd-Frank: Consumer Financial Protection Board Full Powers

Boy meets girl. They like each other. They go out three times. He picks up the tab. Perfectly innocent — and in some cases it could soon be perfectly illegal, if the girl works for Palm Beach County or one of its cities. It's an accidental side-effect of a simple idea: Put a hard limit on the gifts businesses can give government workers and kill Palm Beach County's reputation for corruption. The county's proposed new gift law would extend the rules to thousands of government workers — down to the people who pick up your trash and answer the telephones....

Keith Olbermann is not known for his candor. In a sense, it‘s what’s made him a popular figure on the left. And sure, he makes off-the-wall comments sometimes in order to evoke a response. But he may have gone too far today when he suggested that conservative commentator S.E. Cupp is a prime example of why the world needs Planned Parenthood (PP). Translation, she should have never been born. Immediately, the comment drew fire from those who said Olbermann, the former MSNBC host turned Current TV commentator, insinuated Cupp should have been aborted. And just as quickly, Olbermann started treading...