Free Republic

Another N.C. Dem. Refuses to Endorse Obama Another North Carolina Democrat is refusing to support President Obama's reelection effort. This time it's Rep. Larry Kissell. "[H]e doesn’t plan to endorse Obama for re-election and isn’t sure he’ll attend his party’s national convention in Charlotte," McClatchy reports. "Kissell represents the 8th District, which runs from Mecklenburg County to Robeson County. Last year’s redistricting added heavily Republican areas of Rowan, Davidson and Randolph counties while removing thousands of Democratic voters in Charlotte and Fayetteville." Yet Another N.C. Dem. Won't Endorse Obama, Will Skip Convention Earlier today, news broke that North Carolina congressman...

CITI: Stocks Are Repeating A Pattern From Late 2007, Right Before Things Got Really Ugly Sam Ro Jul. 4, 2012, 9:06 AM Tom Fitzpatrick, Citi's top technical analyst, has spotted a pattern in the stock market that he thinks is worth monitoring closely. Here's an excerpt from his research commentary appears on King World News: The price action here is still similar to that seen at the highs in 2007 going into 2008 (see parallel lines). The initial leg down from the Oct 2007 high (1,576) was 10.7%. We then bounced 8.3% before turning lower again and trending down to...

Explanation: What stands between you and the Sun? Apparently, as viewed from Paris last week, one visible thing after another. First, in the foreground, is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, built in the late 1800s and located on the highest hill in Paris, France. Next, well behind the basilica's towers in the above image, are thin clouds forward scattering sunlight. Finally, far in the distance and slightly buried into the Sun's surface, are sunspots, the most prominent of which is sunspot region AR 1512 visible near the disk center. Since the time that this sunset image was taken, the...

If you asked my true religion, I would not answer anything practiced in a church, synagogue or mosque. My real religion is America, and I feel privileged that, among the world’s 7 billion people, I am one of the roughly 300 million lucky enough to be an American. This transcends mere patriotism. I believe in what this country stands for, even though I acknowledge its limits and failures. As individuals, we are no better than most(selfishness and prejudice having survived). As a society, we have often violated our loftiest ideals (starting with the acceptance of slavery in 1787). Our loud...

Talking animated Deer, Rabbit and Pet Chihuahua, scenic winter landscape! Voices are from grandson Elijah and myself. I wish all a very Happy 4th of July and a new President in the upcoming election. Amen

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks to reporters outside the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on June 26. On Monday, McConnell said the odds were against repealing Obamacare. Photo Credit:AP/J. Scott Applewhite It's on his to-do list, but U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the odds are against repealing the health care law championed by President Barack Obama. The Kentucky Republican said Monday it's hard to unravel something of the magnitude of the 2,700-page health care law, WHAS-TV reports. "If you thought it was a good idea for the federal government to go in this...

The poorly run City College of San Francisco has eight months to prove it should stay in business, yet must "make preparations for closure," evaluators ordered Tuesday. The stunning verdict by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges could result in the closure of California's largest college and a fixture of higher education in one of the nation's wealthiest cities. It has 90,000 students. Only accredited colleges can receive public funding under state law. But City College's failure to fix serious, long-standing problems of leadership and fiscal planning means that the accrediting commission could vote as early as next...

According to a Newsweek/Daily Beast poll of likely voters, Barack Obama now rates behind Jimmy Carter in the pantheon of great presidents. The poll asked likely voters to list the two best and the two worst presidents the history of the United States. Here are the tallies, based on net results:

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare"), NPR's "Talk of the Nation" held a seminar of sorts at the Aspen Institute's legendarily pretentious Ideas Festival. Someone in the audience asked NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner this question: "Today's decision is a positive decision for the estimated 50 million uninsured Americans. Who are the losers today?" Rovner seemed to struggle to find losers. She came up with insurance companies that want the so-called individual mandate -- now a punitive tax, according to the Supreme Court -- to be much more punitive. After...

St. George Mormon Temple Haunted? Did the Declaration of Independence signers appear as ghosts to a later Lds 'prophet'? Without saying his name, Mormon leaders and grassroots Mormons daily reference Wilford Woodruff when they interact with non-Mormons and the media. How so? Well, they like to tell others how polygamy is a supposed bygone of another era; how a certain Lds "prophet" in 1890 put the kabosh on it...or, at least, started a mainstream Mormon move toward monogamy. Yet, there's a little-known episode that this same Wilford Woodruff said that occurred in the 1870s -- before becoming the head "prophet"...

Two iconic British television shows collided this week when The Avengers star Diana Rigg popped up on the set of Doctor Who. The actress, 73, was pictured filming a guest role on the BBC series with Matt Smith and new assistant Jenna-Louise Coleman. The trio were dressed in Period costume as they filmed scenes in Butetown, in Cardiff.

The Libor scandal seems to be waking people up to manipulation and fraud by the big banks. There are any other types of fraud they've engaged in as well ... Here is a partial list: Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this) Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this, this, this, this and this Cheating homeowners - especially veterans - from laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this Cooking...

The small town of East Hampton has gained a reputation as the playground for New York’s well-heeled elite, a place to spend the idle summer months in their million-dollar homes. But some of its wealthy residents are upset at an influx of less well-heeled workers who they say are lowering the quality of life and diminishing the appearance of the quaint Long Island town. A campaign group is focusing on the Springs area of East Hampton, dubbing itself 'Unoccupy Springs' and calling for an end to multiple families of low-wage workers living under one roof.

During a recent mapping of the rare virgin forest in and around the Øvre Dividalen National Park in Troms, Norway, scientists noticed some scars reappearing on the trees. Many trees had some of their bark cut away on one side, leaving marks that were hard to explain. Arve Elvebakk of the University of TromsØ (UiT) headed the study. He worked together with Andreas Kirchhefer, an expert in dating old trees by tree-ring analysis. He had already used ancient pines to chart weather and climate conditions. Could the cuts in the bark have been left by settlers who started farms in...

To some partisans, it may sound jarring: President Barack Obama talks about how he and former rival John McCain were simpatico in 2008 while Mitt Romney fondly recalls Bill Clinton’s White House tenure. Yet lauding the prominent elder statesmen from the opposing party has become a regular feature of the 2012 presidential race, with Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, using Clinton to score points against Obama the same way the president seeks such an advantage by invoking McCain. . . . Obama has made positive public mentions of McCain, an Arizona senator, at least six times over the last two...

Awhile back, Whitney Pitcher and I put together a list of Governor Palin’s executive accomplishments. That list later became an article featured on Breitbart’s Big Government, as an answer to those who proclaim that Governor Palin was somehow “unqualified” to be on the 2008 Republican ticket. Using facts and historical record, Whitney and I compiled a list that proves every single-one of these people wrong. Keep in mind, most of the people making this assertion (including former McCain staff members), voted for a junior senator from Illinois (with a less than stellar record) in that election. I wanted to make...

DAD, WHAT's UNABHANGIKEITSTAG? "Is that when the thirteen colonies broke away from England?" My ten year inquired out of nowhere at 6 AM German time this morning. "Yeah, why do you want to know, eat your breakfast," I mumbled, too sleepy to be very curious. "Because I am afraid my teacher will ask me, since I am wearing this T-shirt and I'm the only American in the class." With an effort, I adjusted my gaze upward to his white T-shirt. It was brand new. Prominent on his breast was an image of the flag and below that: OLD NAVY FREEDOM...

The hospitals that perform child heart surgery are due to learn which will have to stop performing operations. There are 10 units in England, but an official consultation has proposed up to four should cease doing surgery. The NHS review was carried out amid fears expertise was spread too thinly, and has already concluded surgery should be concentrated on fewer sites. Centres in Leicester, Leeds, Newcastle, Southampton, Bristol and London are under threat.

A national Hispanic civil rights group is asking the Department of Justice to investigate alleged voter suppression in the Democratic primary in the 13th congressional district. The group, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, has sent a letter to the DOJ voicing concern that Spanish-speaking voters found it difficult to cast ballots because they were unable to receive Spanish-language assistance and were turned away, or were told to vote by affidavit ballots, according to a statement by the organization. The appeal to the DOJ by LatinoJustice, which recently was among several voter advocacy groups that sued Florida over its decision to target more than...

.... Why had the revolution dreamed up in the late 1960s mostly been won on the social and cultural fronts — women’s rights, gay rights, black president, ecology, sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll — but lost in the economic realm, with old-school free-market ideas gaining traction all the time? (snip) What has happened politically, economically, culturally and socially since the sea change of the late ’60s isn’t contradictory or incongruous. It’s all of a piece. For hippies and bohemians as for businesspeople and investors, extreme individualism has been triumphant. Selfishness won. From the beginning, the American idea embodied a tension...