Free Republic

Media blackout: CIA director accused of links to Communist spy contact -- scandal ignored Wes Vernon June 13, 2011 If you have been depending on the mainstream media for your news the past few days, you are probably learning here for the first time that CIA Director Leon Panetta has been called out for his links to an important open member of the Communist Party. Some background When this writer first arrived in Washington, D.C., as a reporter in 1968, one of my assignments was to cover the congressional delegation from Washington State. Occasionally, both Democrat and Republican members of...

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Boo and Riley are more than affectionate, protective family pets. To their owners, the specially trained dogs are a furry layer of security to sniff out peanut products and other life-threatening allergens. ... "Our goal is for the dog to be with her everywhere she goes," Gianna's mother said. "I don't expect people to change their world for us, but I do expect them to allow us to protect our child in the way we need to."

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A stock sell-off gained momentum Wednesday after a report showed a sharp drop in U.S. manufacturing activity and exacerbated growing fears of a slowing economic recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 136 points, or 1.1%, with all but one of the blue chip index's 30 components lagging. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) were the worst performing stocks on the blue-chip index. The S&P 500 (SPX) shed 14 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) slid 23 points, or 0.8%. Stocks were under...

A spokesman for the Secret Service said it’s not out of the ordinary for agents to “monitor” Fox News — or any other news organization. An employee of the Secret Service on Wednesday accidentally Tweeted on the agency’s Twitter account a complaint about having to “monitor Fox for a story” and not being able to deal with the network’s “blathering.” The Tweet was promptly removed and the Secret Service offered an apology, blaming it on someone who thought he or she was posting to a personal account. But why was the law enforcement agency that provides protection to the president...

On the 6th of this month I sent my 7 or 8 year old GPS72 to the Garmin service center in Kansas. It had been a reliable tool but was showing signs of failure and died on a recent trip to Fort Benning, Georgia.I got it back today, looks and works like new again and it only cost me about 70 bucks including UPS to Garmin.I know I could have bought a new one but I like the old beast just fine.

"Thousands gathered to remember their pastor, spiritual father, counselor and friend, Rev. David Wilkerson, during a memorial service at his Times Square Church in New York City, Saturday. The May 14 service marked a candid event for all to remember the man who had impacted so many lives. Pastor Carter Conlon, leader of Times Square Church, described Wilkerson as a "dear friend" who loved doing the work of God." For those who may have missed watching the memorial service live-streamed yesterday, here is a link to video of it at Times Square Church site: http://www.tscnyc.org/david-wilkerson-memorial-service.php

Just curious, but does anyone know what the ratio of Obama's attendance to Church is to the number of golf games he's played since becoming President?

Just heard a promo on Fox that O'reilly will investigate whether Obama deep sixed his college and selective service records. The show airs tonight, April 12th. Well whada ya know....

Global Economy? 23 Facts Which Prove That Globalism Is Pushing The Standard Of Living Of The Middle Class Down To Third World Levels From now on, whenever you hear the term "the global economy" you should immediately equate it with the destruction of the U.S. middle class. Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system. Unfortunately for the middle class, much of the rest of the world does not have the same minimum wage laws and worker protections that we do. Therefore, the massive global corporations that...

I think one of the least utilized assets in all of America is the Clergy, how can you have a pool of College Educated, or Scripturally Wise men and granted, some Women, and shuttle them off to the side as if the knowledge accumulated is akin to those whom are expert at variations of color of sea snails? I also do believe in the concept of "whomsoever" as in a Sheepskin does not a wise man make, in that sense Christians who have served in Congregations worthily should also be included. A roll call perhaps? To the topic, even Lay...

JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday announced new programs geared toward military customers and veterans, and apologized for overcharging thousands of active-duty service members on mortgages and improperly foreclosing on more than a dozen. The steps include a program making certain military personnel eligible for reduced-rate mortgages; enhancing a mortgage modification program for personnel who are having trouble making payments; and a pledge not to foreclose on any active personnel while they're deployed. JPMorgan Chase [JPM Loading... () ] Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said those programs and other initiatives "are a start, but in no way a finish" to the bank's...

The Presidential Protective Detail is the holiest of holies. Everything stops for the presidential motorcade . . . The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was not so understanding. His motorcade was arriving at the Sheraton Hotel while a “POTUS Freeze” was in place. The Secret Service agent in charge of Erdogan’s detail asked him to wait until Obama’s motorcade had departed, but the Turkish prime minister did not heed the advice. He opened the door to his car, and armed Turkish agents began exiting the other vehicles in the motorcade. “Don’t do that!” the American detail leader shouted....

What observers took to be a gaffe was vigorously defended by Obama adviser Valerie Jarret. At a dinner hosted by the Alfalfa Club, Jarret asked a passing uniformed general to “bring me another glass of wine.” “They’re called ‘service men’ for Pete’s sake,” Jarret argued. “I’m a high-ranking advisor to their Commander-in-Chief. If I ask for something I should be served. It’s not like I’m asking them to take a bullet for me, although I believe it would be their duty to honor such a request.” read more... http://azconserv1.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/senator-urges-president-to-ignore-court-ruling/

U.S. Postal Service to close 2,000 post officesBy Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal Posted today at 7:13 a.m. With red ink showing no sign of stopping, the U.S. Postal Service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year. In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000 — half of the nation’s existing post offices — that are...

Everyone’s concept of the perfect day is different. My perfect day would likely involve a whole lot of fish, hiking, sports, good food, a campfire, and board games. The surroundings would be a few select friends, the ocean, and the mountains. It would be warm enough not to need a sweater, but cool enough to be completely comfortable! That is the kind of day which should not end. Let the sun just sit on the horizon and never go down. The truth of the matter is the sun does go down each day. It will continue doing so until God...

That slide above is no joke -- it comes from a marketing webinar put on by two companies that count Verizon, AT&T and Vodafone as clients, and it describes a system that identifies customer internet activity and charges a different rate for using Facebook than watching YouTube, while allowing access to Vodafone services for free. Yes, that's basically the nightmare scenario for net neutrality advocates. The two companies behind the slide are Allot Communications and Openet, which sell subscriber-management tools to carriers around the world -- tools that Allot's director of marketing says can scan even encrypted packets to determine...

An Archdiocese Spanning the Globe December 10th, 2010 by George WeigelAsked to name the most populous American dioceses, alert Catholics would likely name Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. I rather doubt that most of us would rank Brooklyn (the country’s only completely urban diocese) as high on the league table as it in fact is, and I’m willing to wager that not 1 in 20 Catholics would put Rockville Centre (New York) and Orange (California) in the top 10. Then there is the real sleeper, which is the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA—a global jurisdiction whose congregants include...

Just got my mail and it was junk mail from the Postal Service advertising for their flat rate mailers. It's so sad to see the once great U. S. Post Office reduced to this.

Cong. Jim Moran of Virginia says that his opponent has no "public service", but opponent (Col. Patrick Murray - US Army-Ret.) served in military for 24 years!

In 2009, 146,365 members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul served 14,582,339 people. They gave 7,659,373 hours of service to their friends, the Poor.Members made 644,000 home visits, plus more than 910,000 visits to prisons, hospitals, elderly, and to others in need.The Society obtained jobs for more than 8,000 people, gave travelers aid to 83,000, and provided referrals for 382,000 people.Expenditures in service to the Poor totaled $329,447,590. In kind value of food, clothing and furniture totaled an estimated $80 million. The total value of Vincentian services across the USA is more than half a billion dollars....