Free Republic

The Obama administration's second installment of sequester scare tactics is working about as well as its first go 'round. Run away: The White House has endorsed a plan to eliminate FAA spending cuts that have cause air travel delays across the country. The agency has been forced to furlough air traffic controllers as part of the automatic budget cuts that kicked in this spring. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to end the cuts by claiming savings from the draw down of war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans reject his proposal calling it an accounting gimmick. Of course it's...

LONDON: The bacon and sausage on your plate or those steaming hot pies are increasing your chances of premature death from cancer and heart disease. Processed meat is to blame for one in 30 early deaths, a large-scale study has now found. The EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study involving 10 countries and 23 centres in Europe and almost half a million people has found that risk of premature death increased with the amount of processed meat eaten by a person. According to the study, even one sausage a day is bad for your health. The researchers...

Responding to the Obama administration's operatic warnings of catastrophe for Meals on Wheels for the elderly, Head Start, meat inspections, air traffic controllers, and police, fire, and 911 operators if the government reduces the rate of increase of federal spending by 2 percent, radio host Chris Plante offered the following suggestion: "Since this two percent obviously covers all essential government spending, let's cut the other 98 percent!" Even if these "draconian cuts" are implemented, the federal government will spend more this year than it did last year. Another way to think about it is this: In 2007, the government was...

I'll bet no one else around here owns a calibrated radiation survey meter! I have posted this before, but it's worth repeating. A few months after the Fukushima meltdown, I took my survey meter to the grocery store. California veggies...fine. Fish display...fine. Canned tuna shelves....UH OH. I measured .05 rad/hour. That's over one rad/day. Since the tuna was in cans, the alpha and beta particles would not be detected, IIRC. If I remember my particle physics, my meter must have been detecting gammas or neutrons. If someone ingests the radioactive particles in the tuna, they will be irradiated from the...

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is the Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security for the Congressional Caucus on EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) that endeavors to carry on the work of the EMP Commission. He is also the Director of the United States Nuclear Strategy Forum, an advisory body to Congress on policies to counter weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Pry has served on the staffs of the EMP Commission, the Strategic Posture Commission, the Commission on the New Strategic Posture of the U.S., the House Armed Services Committee and the Central Intelligence Agency. For those unfamiliar with...

A landmark study on Hiroshima survivors comprehensively disproves nuclear lobby spin about ionising radiation being safe at low doses. Noel Wauchope reports. The nuclear industry has a long history of concealing the truth about low dose radiation This week, a new report about low dose ionising radiation was published — one that should put a spanner in the works of the nuclear lobby. It is called ‘Studies of the Mortality of Atomic Bomb Survivors, Report 14, 1950–2003: An Overview of Cancer and Noncancer Diseases’. First of all, let me explain why this report is so important and so timely. It’s...

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Scientists say that migrating Pacific bluefin tuna off California's coast are carrying radioactive contamination from Japan. According to findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the levels of radioactivity are 10 times higher than the amounts usually found. Scientists sampled 15 tuna caught off San Diego and found that they all contained two radioactive substances -- caesium-134 and caesium-137. The tuna have carried the radioactive contamination 6,000 miles from the waters near Japan's crippled nuclear plant. It was damaged in a devastating magnitude 9.0 quake and subsequent tsunami in April 2011. Experts say...

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Unified teacher Mike Newman sighed when he saw the now familiar certified letter in his mailbox last month — a pink slip, for the fourth year in a row. “Here we go again,” said Newman, a 14-year classroom veteran who’s had his previous three layoffs rescinded and hopes for the same this year. “We keep thinking it’ll get better sooner or later, but it’s not.” A new term is being bandied about in California schools these days — “the RIFing season,” which refers to the “reduction in force” letters notifying teachers they may be laid...

What are we to think about a president and vice president who blow nearly a trillion dollars in borrowed money, accept no responsibility for it and then traverse the nation trying to convince Americans that if we don't spend half that much again, people will die from dilapidated bridges and women will be raped because we can't afford cops? What business do these two have lecturing anyone about anything, much less the conditions that might ensue if we were not to spend more printed money to pay for things they failed to finance the first time because they misappropriated the...

Nothing gives better proof of a sure and certain, rapidly growing global food shortage than the simplest look at how commodity markets have been responding to the US debt crisis, the coming devaluation of the US dollar, and the merited exposure of Barack Obama as a loser. Stripping away the short covering, the dollar crisis, inflation fear and all the rest, we find that food prices are resisting a lot better than oil prices, to the rising likelihood of recession in the western world, and maybe also global economic recession. If food products were "pure commodities", like oil basically is,...

The number of Hispanic voters nationally and in New Mexico is growing at a faster pace than any other ethnic group, and that could spell trouble for the Republican party over the next 10 years, a political analyst with a business advocacy group said Tuesday. “Republicans are in trouble with Hispanics,” said Michael Davis, the Washington, D.C.-based vice president for political programs of the Business and Industry PAC. The party’s stance on immigration may not be bad policy, David said, “but the tone and language is extremely harsh and it drives away Hispanics.” Either party can improve its chances of...

An enraged Barack Obama just took to the nation’s airwaves to announce his effort to strike a deal with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has fallen apart. Perhaps for the first time in American history, this president is literally using this press conference to create a financial panic over the weekend about the opening of the markets on Monday. He is warning of disaster on Monday. Clearly, he wants to use this as leverage to frighten the GOP into passing the plan proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which will push the debt ceiling problem into 2013,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The editrix of the most widely read political newsletter in the world -- that would be mine -- the Limbaugh Letter, Diana Allocco... (interruption) No, no. No, no, no. It's Italian. (laughing) Somebody asked, "Is that a nickname for being an idiot?" Not "a loco." No, no, it doesn't mean that. It's not a nickname for being an idiot. Not "a loco." No. A loco is a Democrat; a loco is just crazy. That's her name: Allocco. It's not a description, is her name. We're working on the next issue of the Limbaugh better, and she found...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama raised the stakes in the third straight day of budget talks on Tuesday by warning that senior citizens and veterans may suffer first if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2. The comments came as top Republicans toughened their stance in the deficit reduction talks. Hours before heading to the White House, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said a "real solution" to the U.S. debt problem was unlikely while Obama was in office.

New analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), which has been shared extensively with members of Congress, estimates that the Treasury Department would not be able to pay all its bills and would need to implement an immediate 44 percent cut in federal spending in the event the debt ceiling is exceeded. On an annualized basis, the cut in spending alone is a 10 percent cut in GDP, BPC scholar Jay Powell told reporters. The report released Tuesday concludes that Treasury would not be able to pay all its bills between Aug. 2 and “probably” not later than Aug. 9...

Some conservatives are getting nervous about the polls on Medicare.  Apparently about 80 percent of Americans are opposed to cuts in Medicare.  Mona Charen, for one, is steeling herself for the inevitable Mediscare campaign from the Democrats. The Democrats have always known how to scare the pants off grannie at any suggestion of cuts to Medicare and Social Security.  For years and years, Republicans didn't know how to respond to their Mediscare.  But now things are different.  These days the American people are good and scared about debts and deficits.  So it's now possible to scare the pants off...

(Reuters) - Radiation exceeding health limits for infants was found in a Tokyo city water purifier and authorities are advising that the water not be given to babies, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official said, confirming an earlier report by NHK public TV.

(In light of today's New Zealand earthquake) Of the many different natural disasters that exist, nothing is as terrifying and devastating as the awesome power of an earthquake. In just a few moments of time an earthquake can unleash catastrophic damage and the deaths of multitudes. Who can forget the recent earthquake in Haiti in 2010? As we inch ever closer to the coming Day of the Lord, we are seeing a marked global increase in the number and intensity of earthquakes - just as Jesus said we would (see Matt. 24:7-8; Mark 13:8)! "As we inch ever closer to...

Things are happening in our world that are indeed signs of the end times, said evangelist Greg Laurie. While this certainly isn't the first time a preacher has made such a statement, the ongoing chaos in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, among other things, has prompted the Southern California preacher to prepare Christians for the last days. "What every last days believer needs to know" was the name of Laurie's message, preached to thousands at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., and over the internet on Sunday. "I do believe that these are bona fide signs of...

End Times: The Unbelief of Man Vs. The Word of God

It seems the panic time for both green enthusiasts and peak oil pundits. According to a new paper by two researchers at the University of California – Davis, it would take 131 years for replacement of gasoline and diesel given the current pace of research and development; however, world's oil could run dry almost a century before that. The research was published on Nov. 8 at Environmental Science & Technology, which is based on the theory that market expectations are good predictors reflected in prices of publicly traded securities. By incorporating market expectations into the model, the authors, Nataliya Malyshkina...

Whether or not you are aware of Peak Oil it is a reality and its consequences are far reaching and potentially devastating. The theory of Peak Oil states that as oil is a finite resource, oil reserves will peak at some point in time and begin to decline. Many have stated that the peak of the bell curve has been passed and we are now on an accelerating descent. Oil will become an increasingly scarce commodity and the price will rise accordingly. As the largest user of crude oil in the world the United States is in a precarious position...

The rate at which ice is disappearing from Greenland and Western Antarctica has been seriously overestimated, according to new research. Contrasting estimates of Greenland ice melt. Previous analysis in blue: New in red. The colour bands represent uncertainty. Credit: Nature Geoscience 'Deviates rather sharply from general assumptions' - Yes. Measuring a disappearing ice cap is actually quite difficult to do, as the areas in question are remote, hostile environments and the exact depth of ice is often unknown. This has caused a lot of argument among climate scientists regarding how much ice is melting and running into the sea, as...

It challenges previous assumptions that environmental disasters, such as drought and prolonged heat waves, had played a part in triggering unrest. Instead, it says, traditional factors - such as poverty and social tensions - were often the main factors behind the outbreak of conflicts.

President Barack Obama used the anniversary of Social Security to trumpet Democrats' support for the popular program and accuse Republicans of trying to destroy it. Seventy-five years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law, Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday: "We have an obligation to keep that promise, to safeguard Social Security for our seniors, people with disabilities and all Americans — today, tomorrow and forever." Some Republican leaders in Congress are "pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress this...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Say it isn’t so, Mr. President. You surely are not going to make a deal with Republicans to cut Social Security benefits, are you?</p> <p>Here’s word from The Nation Magazine: “The President intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink.”</p>

Shishmaref, Alaska (Dec. 3) -- When the arctic winds howl and angry waves pummel the shore of this Inupiat Eskimo village, Shelton and Clara Kokeok fear that their house, already at the edge of the Earth, finally may plunge into the gray sea below. "The land is going away," said Shelton Kokeok, 65, whose home is on the tip of a bluff that's been melting in part because of climate change. "I think it's going to vanish one of these days."

“Microchip Implants Ready To Be Used With Swine Flu Vaccines - The Chip Is Located In The Tip Of The Needle”; … “Bird-Pig Flu, Desperate Military Weapon Against Americans”; “Injectable Microchips and Swine Flu Vaccinations; LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER; Next step in H1N1 scare: Microchip implants” … “The far left health care bill HR3200 is a non-discussed section titled National Medical Device Registry implantable device . Its at the end of the health care bill . Subtitle C-11 Sec 2521… The chip will be linked to database.”; … The leaders of the New World Order hope to be able to...

Biofuel refineries in the US have set fresh records for grain use every month since May. Almost a third of the US corn harvest will be diverted into ethanol for motors this year, or 12pc of the global crop. The world's grain stocks have dropped from four to 2.6 months cover since 2000, despite two bumper harvests in North America. China's inventories are at a 30-year low. Asian rice stocks are near danger level. Yet farm commodities have largely missed out on Bernanke's reflation rally in metals, oil, and everything else. Dylan Grice from Société Générale sees "bargain basement" prices....

War with Iran is now inevitable. The only question is: Will it happen sooner or later? -snip- Washington now has two choices: Sanction an American or Israeli military attack to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities or allow Tehran to go nuclear. Either option means war. A devastating strike would likely trigger a fierce Iranian response, including waves of suicide bombers targeting Israeli civilians and U.S. troops in Iraq. Iranian missiles would pound Israeli and, maybe, European cities. Vital shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf would be disrupted, driving the price of oil to more than $300 a barrel - plunging the...

President Obama plans to argue Wednesday night in a high-stakes address to Congress that the country's health care system is at a "breaking point," as he urges lawmakers to stop "bickering" and pass comprehensive reform. "The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery before a joint session of Congress. "Now is the time to deliver on health care." Obama is stressing his resolve to bring lawmakers together and clear away hurdles to passing an overhaul package. "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I...

President Barack Obama on Wednesday tried to retake the upper ground in this month's healthcare debate by casting reform as a "moral conviction" in a conference call with religious leaders. "The one thing that you all share is a moral conviction," Obama said. "This debate over healthcare goes to the heart of who we are as American people... This is part of an ethical and moral obligation that we look out for one another. "In the wealthiest nation on Earth, we are neglecting to live out that call," the president said. Obama asked religious leaders to help him "spread the...

Obama Criticizes 'Scare Tactics' of Health Care Reform Critics Obama said Americans no longer should be "held hostage by health insurance companies" that deny coverage for various reasons. AP August 15, 2009 GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- President Obama on Saturday criticized what he termed as the "scare tactics" of opponents to health care reform. He told a town hall meeting "what is truly scary is if we do nothing" to solve the nation's health care problems. Obama said Americans no longer should be "held hostage by health insurance companies" that deny coverage for various reasons. And he attempted to deflect...

Last month, the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization affiliated with George Mason University, released "Science Suppressed: How America became obsessed with BPA," a report which accuses the media "of ignoring the extensive research of respected scientists and major health agencies in the United States and around the world, which found BPA was not only safe but played an important role in ensuring food safety."   It also confirms what countless previous studies have said; BPA is safe. If you're unfamiliar with Bisphenol A (BPA), it is a chemical used to make lightweight, versatile, durable, high-performance plastics.  It's...

Prophets of Doom has been around probably since the beginning of man’s existence on earth. Whether one believe man was created by God from the dust of the earth, or he evolved from a sea creature, a monkey, or matter from a collision of the planets commonly known as the big bang. Whatever your preference for the origin of man it is no secret that from the time he began walking on planet earth he began predicting its end. It’s now estimated that more than 50% of the world population give doomsday prophets some credibility regarding “End Time Events” thereby...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students. ... The proposals would completely reshape the state’s social service network, transforming California from one of the country’s most generous states to one of the most tightfisted. ..

On Jan. 10, 2008, it was 22,000. This past New Year's Eve, it was 15,000. Two weeks ago Friday, it was 8,000. Now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration – looking down the barrel again at a massive budget crisis – is talking about letting 38,000 inmates out of prison before their time is up. Proposals 1 and 2 never got off the ground when the governor's budget writers eventually found the money to keep the prisons full. More recently, the administration never followed up with legislation to enact the early releases corrections Secretary Matt Cate announced on April 24. The latest...

The 'Plan B' scenarios if the special election measures are defeated continue to trickle out of the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This afternoon, a new one: the governor is prepared to propose a $2 billion suspension of the 2004 constitutional initiative protecting city and county revenues. Talk of suspending 2004's Proposition 1A comes on the heels of a meeting yesterday where Schwarzenegger aides told the firefighting community that voters rejecting the measures on the ballot in two weeks time would result in as many as 1,700 firefighting positions. One local government official on this afternoon's call said the plan...

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks. “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report. The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique...

Scientists discussed the merits and demerits of pumping sulfur into the Earth’s atmosphere as a temporary “fix” to global warming at a forum hosted in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 21 by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The idea is to artificially re-create the effects of volcanic eruptions to temporarily cool the planet. In 2006, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen and National Center for Atmospheric Research Senior Scientist Tom Wigley suggested that “geo-engineering” might be used as a quick, but temporary, remedy for global warming. This idea was one of the issues discussed at the AMS forum. “In particular, Crutzen and...

In less than one year since a German Environmental Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, referred to US President George W. Bush as a Neanderthal for not reducing US CO2 emissions more and sooner, the worm has now indeed turned. Gabriel opined in high dudgeon back in April of this year. In a statement called "Bush's Neanderthal speech," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: "His speech showed not leadership but losership. We are glad that there are also other voices in the United States." Sigmar is accurate that other voices exist. They may emit nonsense, but they do exist. Al Gore’s call for...

Dinosaurs Diversified Over Time, Not SuddenlyMany Species, Many, Many Years July 23, 2008 The belief that dinosaurs underwent explosive species diversification just before they were wiped out is an illusion, for the beasts' main evolutionary shifts took place millions of years before, a study says. The strange demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era some 65 million years ago has given rise to a popular view that almost has the tinge of Greek tragedy. Just as the rulers of the Earth had reached their evolutionary zenith, a catastrophic event -- possibly a space rock that slammed...

As this week’s debate on climate change has unfolded, the American people and those watching us around the world had every reason to hope that we would act. Every credible scientist and expert believes action is necessary. This is critical and long overdue legislation that represents a good first step in addressing one of the most serious problems facing our generation. Like many of my Senate colleagues, I believe the legislation could have been made even better. Had there been a substantive Senate debate about some of the concerns with this bill, I believe the outcome could have generated broad...

Carbon Cult sickos are under fire for an interactive website that tells children they should die because they emit CO2. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Planet Slayer" site invites young children to take a "greenhouse gas quiz", asking them "how big a pig are you?". At the end of the quiz, the pig explodes, and ABC tells children at "what age you should die at so you don’t use more than your fair share of Earth’s resources!" It's one of a number of interactive features that "Get the dirt on greenhouse without the guilt trips. No lectures. No multinational-bashing (well, maybe...

Biting the Bullet: It’s Either McCain or Obama By Rene Guerra Never, ever, in her 232 years of illustrious existence, has America been at such a dire juncture where her enemies and rivals--domestic and foreign--are so determinedly poised and so advantageously positioned to undoing her. Islamofascism has vowed to destroy America, at any cost; “Death to America� the frenzied, mouth-foaming, suicidal Iranian throngs cry. Our brave troops in Iraq and Afghanistan keep fighting day in and day out the terrorists that the Saudi Wahhabis, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian Shiite fundamentalists, and the Syrian Baathists would otherwise be sending to...

Conservatives don’t love John McCain, but unless they’re considering abandoning their cause with Atlas Shrugged proportions, there’s no way in hell they’ll vote for Barack Obama. Sometimes, things have to get worse before they get better. And with that idea in mind, the conservative movement really is America’s crutch. The most specific example is economics, as conservatives constantly preach lower taxes and greater individual freedom. One would think that the Bush tax cuts, which have yielded continued economic growth (yes, our economy is growing, despite the lies you keep hearing), and the burgeoning economy during the Reagan Administration would provide...

Cornflakes in cereal killer warning By Rosemary Desmond May 13, 2008 03:28pm Article from: AAP CLIMATE change could lead to "killer cornflakes" with the most potent liver toxin ever recorded, an environmental health conference has been told. The effects of the toxins, known as mycotoxins, have been known since the Middle Ages when rye bread contaminated with ergot fungus was a staple part of the European diet, environmental health researcher Lisa Bricknell of Central Queensland University (CQU) said. "People started suffering mass hallucinations, manic depression, gangrene, abortions, reduced fertility and painful, convulsive death," Ms Bricknell told the 10th World Congress...

All indications are the Democrats will pick up seats in both the House and Senate, with the Senate likely being a couple of RHINOs away from the magic 60. McCain is no Reagan but he's the only thing standing in the way of the most liberal Senator in Senate becoming President with a clear majority in Congress and at a critical time with decisions to be made on the war on terror, the war in Iraq, heath care, taxes, illegal immigration and likely the Supreme Court. Sometimes you do have to pick the lesser of two evils. This is one...

FORGET DELEGATES AND the popular vote for the Democratic presidential nomination. The most important thing Hillary Clinton gained by winning the Pennsylvania primary yesterday was a better argument--indeed, a much better argument. Chances are, Clinton will trail Obama in the delegate count when the primaries end on June 3, as she does now. And while she may cut into his lead in the popular vote in the Democratic contests, she's not likely to exceed his vote total. So the only way she can capture the nomination is by convincing roughly 300 uncommitted super-delegates that Obama cannot defeat Republican John McCain...