Free Republic

In writing about the ACA and our health-care problems, I started to think more and more about supply restrictions. In every other industry, costs come down when new suppliers come in and compete. Yet our health-care system is full of restrictions and protections to keep new suppliers out, and competition down. Then we wonder why hospitals won't tell you how much care will cost, and send you bills with $100 band aids on them. In that context, I was interested to learn this week about the ACA's limits on expansion of doctor-owned hospitals. The Wall Street Journal article is here,...

Already considered a potential threat to U.S. national security, Huawei is again finding itself under scrutiny, linked to an offer to sell embargoed computer equipment to Iran. A major partner of the Chinese telecommunications gear maker offered to provide €1.3 million ($1.7 million) of Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. However, Huawei says neither it nor Hong Kong-based Skycom, its privately owned partner, provided the equipment to Mobile Telecommunication Co of Iran, known as MCI. …

The fateful question came from a tax lawyer, in a room filled with dozens of them. It came at the end of a Friday morning panel, on the second day of the American Bar Association tax section’s big annual meeting at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington D.C. The moderator had announced that it would be the panel’s last question. “Lois, a few months ago there were some concerns about the IRS’s review of 501(c)(4) organizations, of applications from tea party organizations,” Celia Roady, a veteran tax lawyer, asked Lois Lerner, head of the IRS’ tax-exempt organizations division, a few...

Joseph Kony 2012: filmmaker Jason Russell arrested on suspicion of masturbating in public One of the creators of the “Kony 2012” film about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony has been arrested for allegedly being drunk and masturbating in public. Jason Russell, 33, was also accused of stripping off his clothes and vandalising cars before he was detained in San Diego. Russell, an evangelical Christian, is a co-founder of the American advocacy group Invisible Children. Their 29-minute film has been watched by more than 100 million people and become the fastest spreading video ever.

BOSTON — It was a blow the immigrant boxer could not withstand: after capturing his second consecutive title as the Golden Gloves heavyweight champion of New England in 2010, Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev, 23, was barred from the national Tournament of Champions because he was not a United States citizen. The cocksure fighter, a flamboyant dresser partial to white fur and snakeskin, had been looking forward to redeeming the loss he suffered the previous year in the first round, when the judges awarded his opponent the decision, drawing boos from spectators who considered Mr. Tsarnaev dominant. From one year to the...

Nine people including one foreigner were killed and 45 injured in a suspected bomb blast in the German Bakery at Koregaon Park which also houses a Jewish prayer house and the Osho Ashram here this evening. Pune Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said there were five women among the victims. The blast took place at the German Bakery, an old business establishment, at around 7:15pm. Initial reports have suggested that the Indian Mujahideen is being suspected to be behind the blast. "There was a bomb blast. There have been eight deaths and 33 people were injured", said Pune joint commissioner...

Kerry Has Investments in Companies Accused of Violating Iran Sanctions Daniel Halper December 21, 2012 12:59 PM John Kerry, who will be nominated later today to be the next secretary of state, is the richest member of the U.S. Senate. His estimated net worth is, at minimum, $198.65 million, according to disclosure forms. Kerry's disclosure forms also reveal that he has invested in companies accused of doing business with Iran. One of the companies Kerry is invested in is called Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (Petrobras), it's a Brazilian-based oil and gas corporation. Disclosure forms reveal that Kerry has between $150,000...

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

Egyptian authorities fearful of a monopoly on Nile waters received agreement from Khartoum to build an airbase in Sudan, to launch attacks on Ethiopian damming facilities, claims the anonymous media outlet; Wikileaks. Wikileaks has leaked files allegedly from the Texas-based global intelligence company, Stratfor, which quote an anonymous "high-level Egyptian source," claiming the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon said in 2010 his nation would do anything to prevent the secession of South Sudan because of the political implications it will have for Egypt's access to the Nile. The Nile is vital in providing fresh water to the people and agricultural projects...

President François Hollande said on Thursday that Islamist groups holding French hostages in Africa were not trustworthy and should not be taken seriously after Al-Qaeda accused Paris of blocking negotiations for their release. There are a total of nine French hostages on the continent. On Tuesday the Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said France was snubbing talks proposed by the group to free four French citizens abducted in Niger in September 2010. "The less one speaks, the better one can work," Hollande told journalists during a visit to Rungis, a giant wholesale food market just outside Paris. "There have been...

On August 23, 2011 the FBI arrested Imam Abu Taubah aka Marcus Dwayne Robertson. The charge was possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, Case Number: 6:11-mj-1380 Attached to Imam Abu Robertson’s case is a Notice of Intent To Use Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Information (FISA). The U.S. Government’s intention to use its FISA powers signals probable cause to charge Imam “Taubah” Robertson “the target of such search is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power”. The facts presented in these filed charges leads this reporter to suspect an element of foreign intrigue may be...

He's not a Jew. At least, that's the latest on the man behind the anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims," that has fueled attacks on U.S. diplomatic installations in Libya, Egypt and Yemen, leaving the U.S. ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, dead. The filmmaker appears to be an Egyptian Christian rather than an Israeli Jew, as he had claimed in interviews. The Associated Press tracked down an Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California who admitted to involvement with the film's logistics, and whose middle name and a known alias closely resemble the apparently fake name - Sam Bacile -...

No word yet on what the violation was, but I assume it must be far more serious than using an alias or a computer. Given the insanity of the past two weeks, replete with the White House nudging Google to pull the video off of YouTube and the State Department running ads on Pakistani TV to apologize for a movie they had nothing to do with, I can’t quite believe the DOJ would risk the perception that they’re punishing this guy for a thoughtcrime unless something serious was involved. There has to be a real crime underlying this. Right? The...

The California man behind an anti-Muslim film that roiled the Middle East was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for violating his probation stemming from a 2010 bank fraud conviction by lying about his identity. U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder immediately sentenced Mark Basseley Youssef after he admitted to four of the eight alleged violations, including obtaining a fraudulent California driver's license. Prosecutors agreed to drop the other four allegations under an agreement with Youssef's attorneys, which also included more probation. None of the violations had to do with the content of "Innocence of Muslims," a film that...

RUSH: Again, I want to go back. There are two polling groups that have pulled out of Virginia (one of them a month ago) saying that it's over in and North Carolina. Suffolk Polling pulled out. They’re thinking, “It's over there. We're not gonna spend any more money there.” Another poll pulled out of Florida yesterday or the day before. But the Drive-Bys continue to poll these states, obviously, and the Drive-Bys continue to put out polling data. “It's tied! It's Obama here, Obama there, Romney there!” Nobody knows. That's why I say it's a turnout election now. It really...

The first page of Brady Campaign's latest IRS Form 990, for 2010. By way of comparison: Revenue Expenses Assets minus liabilities 2004 7.4 million 7.8 million 197,000 2008 4.1 million 4.2 million -838,000 (yes, a negative) 2009 3.4 million 3.6 million -564,000 2010 2.8 million 3.1 million -768,000 Their donor base is spiraling down, they haven't been able to cut expenses that far, and I assume are covering the gap by continual borrowing -- most recently, of 25% of their budget. In 2010, salary expenses were $1.25 million and professional fundraising $228,000, meaning that over half their revenue went to...

AFP - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was expected in Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian leaders on his first major foreign visit since the killing of Osama bin Laden by US forces. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host Zardari for talks on Thursday at the Kremlin where officials from the two countries were also expected to sign agreements on cooperation in agriculture, aviation and energy, a spokesman for the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow told AFP. "Economics will be the focus of the visit," said the spokesman, Raja Abdul Qayyum. The three-day visit to Russia will be Zardari's first...

Would this remain a local DC story if the accused had been staff director of an important committee in a Republican controlled Senate? >>>>A former senior congressional aide was indicted this week in D.C. Superior Court on charges that he sexually assaulted two women after drugging them with a sedative that he allegedly put in their drinks. Donny Ray Williams Jr., 36, who served as staff director for a Senate subcommittee and worked in the offices of several members of Congress, gave at least one woman Ambien and assaulted her while she was unconscious, according to court papers. Williams was...

VP candidate Ryan paid tax rate of 15.9 percent in 2010, returns showBy Daniel Strauss - 08/17/12 06:33 PM ET Paul Ryan and his wife paid a tax rate of 15.9 percent in 2010 and 20 percent in 2011, according to tax returns Mitt Romney's campaign released Friday. In 2011, the Ryans had an adjusted gross income of $323,416 and paid $64,764 in federal taxes. In 2010, Ryan and his wife had an income of $215,417 and paid $34,233 in federal taxes. Roughly more than half of that income came from Ryan's salary as a member of Congress. The rest...

....breathtaking scenes with the Discover America’s signature song ‘Land of Dreams’ written and sung by Roseanne Cash, viewers don’t get a raincheck on the campaign’s multicultural theme and the spiral in the sand that builds the Open Society Logo in opening scenes. Such is the power of subliminal.  Discover America is $12.3 million dollars worth of free advertising for Soros. Blame Brand USA for the Open Society’s free advertising ride. Brand USA is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, with headquarters based in Wa, DC. “Brand USA was established by the Travel...

But despite a myriad of pollsters hypothesizing that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could lose her coveted gavel, Pelosi has adopted a stiff jawed mien of denial that some have compared to Mohammed Saïd al-Sahaf, Saddam Hussein’s information minister during the 2003 invasion of Iraq... “Well let me say why I believe that [it] would be very difficult for the Republicans to take over the House of Representatives. Let me tell you right here and now that I would rather be in our position right now than theirs,” Pelosi told Charlie Rose on Wednesday.

The Obama administration proclaimed Recovery Summer on June 17, 2010 to spotlight the imapact President Obama's economic program after passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (or "Stimulus package") by the Democratic controlled 111th Congress in 2009. Vice President Joe Biden was placed in charge of the effort. During Recovery Summer 393,000 jobs were destroyed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rose, and economic growth slowed from 5.7% to 1.6%. The number counted by the Department of Labor as unemployed at the start of Recovery Summer was 14,599,000 Americans in July 2010; by September there were 14,767,000...

Federal authorities on Thursday formally charged a Marine reservist in connection with 2010 shootings at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. According to a criminal complaint, law enforcement officers searched the residence of Yonathan Melaku and found numerous documents concerning bomb-making and explosives. Melaku was arrested last week after he was found trespassing in Arlington National Cemetery before dawn. A car he pointed authorities to set off a bomb scare near the Pentagon. Officials said they seized a digital videotape in Melaku's bedroom desk. According to the criminal complaint, a review of the videotape showed Melaku...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-minister-statement-on-alan-mcmenemy/ Prime Minister's statement on Alan McMenemy Friday 20 January 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the British Embassy in Baghdad have received the body of hostage Alan McMenemy. The Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British Embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men. The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was the only hostage released alive...

The United Nations was paying one of the world’s most notorious terrorist groups after getting “too close” to it, secret documents disclose. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) had to suspend activities in southern Somalia after being manipulated by al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda. In a meeting last year with the UN ambassador Susan Rice, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the special representative for Somalia, said the WFP had been withdrawn “because it had become too reliant upon al-Shabaab and its system of pay-offs”. Al-Shabaab, an Islamic group fighting to overthrow the Somalian government, controls much of south and central Somalia and...

The Political Derby Composite Poll is a tool that takes the most recent major polls and weights their results based on poll age, sample type, and margin of error each day using a proprietary formula. Unlike other poll compilations, this is not a simple average. The polls that make up the PD Composite are well-known reputable national polls who sample “likely primary voters” and “registered voters”, as opposed to only “adults, including, but not limited to: NBC News/Wall Street Journal, Pew Research, Quinnipiac University, and Rasmussen Reports... The PD Composite will be updated in a regular post that will run...

Newt Gingrich will bring his surging campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to Bluffton on Tuesday for an outdoor rally. The former U.S. House speaker from Georgia will campaign at the Calhoun Street Promenade in Old Town, said James Epley, the Gingrich campaign’s Beaufort County manager. First, at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, he will go to a campaign office opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at 6 Promenade St., Suite 1001 B. Then, “from 1 to 2:30 p.m., he’ll be doing an outdoor Town Hall meeting in the Promenade. It’s open to the public,” Epley said. The free event will be in...

The FBI rounded up a network of deep-cover Russian spies last year after the group came close to placing an agent near a Cabinet official in the Obama administration, a senior FBI counterspy said Monday as the bureau released once-secret documents on the case. ...U.S. officials said it was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Figliuzzi said in an interview that the FBI decided to end its more than 10-year-long counterspy investigation of the network because of concerns that the spies were “getting very close to their objective.” “These 10 Russian officers were sent to the U.S. on a...

More information on the man who would dethrone Obama in the New Hampshire 2012 primary. The registration deadline ended today, and the field includes 14 candidates on the Democrat side alone. Darcy Richardson wrote a book about the McCarthy campaign which ousted LBJ in 1968, so he's done his homework. Old timers may recall that the Dump-Johnson movement didn't happen by itself, but was an intra-party insurgent movement started in 1967 by attorney Allard K. Lowenstein. With the media consensus trying to force-feed the GOP into accepting Mitt Romney as an opponent to Obama, it's worth looking at other avenues...

Former Florida Republican governor Jeb Bush has said he won’t endorse anyone in the presidential primary. [Snip]... In a rare intervention into electoral politics since his departure from the Florida governorship, he decided that Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s venture into birtherism has gone on long enough. In an exclusive statement to Right Turn, he e-mailed me: “Republican candidates should categorically reject the notion that President Obama was not born in the United States. It is a complete distraction from the failed economic policies of the President.” And that was it. [Snip] At this point, few responsible Republican office-holders dare defend...

And the next President of the United States will be: teleprompter populist extraordinaire, Barack Obama. Should the Republicans nominate one of the three current frontrunners – Mitt Romney, Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann – Barack “Back-on-track” Obama wins (despite polls showing him with just a 41 percent approval rating) by playing the populist card he’s already begun to deal, forecasts Gerald Celente,Trends Journalpublisher.

Obama Admin Reworked Solyndra Loan To Favor Donor By MATTHEW DALY The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors — including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama — moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show. Newly released emails show that the Obama administration was worried about the financial health of a troubled solar energy company even as officials publicly declared the company in good shape. An email from a White House budget official to...

According to data just released by the U.S. Census this morning, in 2010, the median income earned by an individual American was $26,197, or rather, 50% of Americans earned more than that amount and 50% earned less than that amount. The average (or mean) income was $38,337. We've presented the cumulative distribution of the total money income earned by individuals in the United States in the chart below: So what percentile does your income place you on that chart? Well, wonder no more! Our latest tool will tell you exactly where you rank among all Americans, or rather, the 211,492,000...

Obama called for $50 billion more in infrastructure spending to rebuild roads, railways and runways -- a proposal that GOP leaders immediately cast as dead-on-arrival. Obama will also pitch a $100 billion proposal Wednesday to increase and make permanent research and development tax credits for businesses. Obama is expected to ask lawmakers to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies and multinational corporations to pay for the plan. The administration is also urging the Senate to pass the small business bill that calls for about $12 billion in tax breaks and a $30 billion fund to help unfreeze lending....

EXCERPT FROM FORBES MAGAZINE: She says she never wanted to make the ad - which was prompted by questions about a statement she had made on a late-night talk show years earlier - and was surprised when it showed up on the Internet. She blames an insistent media consultant but also her own inability to put her foot down. "It was a wrong-headed move, made for all the wrong reasons, but it was mine," O'Donnell writes in "Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again." The book is scheduled to go on sale Aug. 16. The Associated...

Exxon Mobil Corp. has made one of the largest oil and gas finds in the Gulf of Mexico in a decade, the company announced today. The oil major said it made two oil discoveries and a natural gas discovery in its Keathley Canyon blocks, including an oil discovery in the company’s first exploration well since last year’s moratorium on deep-water drilling. Exxon expects the combined finds to yield more than 700 million barrels of oil equivalent. More than 85 percent would be oil, the company said. Drilling early in 2010 turned up oil and natural gas at the well 250...

It seemed an innocuous, catch-up phone call. Last year Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the pseudonym for a Pakistani known to U.S. intelligence as the main courier for Osama bin Laden, took a call from an old friend. Where have you been? inquired the friend. We’ve missed you. What’s going on in your life? And what are you doing now?

Jama'a al-Islamiya leader Omar Abdel Rahman, who is being held in a prison in North Carolina, US, in a 15-minute telephone conversation with his wife Aisha said “the Egyptian revolution achieved the impossible.” His son Mohamed said an officer from the prison called Abdel Rahman’s home on the landline first to make sure that his wife was there, and that her voice matched the registered "voiceprint." He added that a recorded message from the prison’s phone said the line would be cut immediately if any person other than Aisha talked on the phone. He also said that his father was...

The big news today is that the $38.5 billion in budget cuts announced with such fanfare on Friday night mostly aren’t real. A good deal of it involves money from previous years and previous budgets that hasn’t actually been spent. As the AP puts it, the budget deal is financed with a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially ‘score’ as savings to pay for spending elsewhere, -snip- The total amount actually cut appears to be somewhere between $8 and $14 billion. The politics here are very complicated now. On the one hand, polls suggest the public is overwhelmingly...

. In an interview last night on Fox News, Gov Palin stated that the Paul Ryan budget was a good start. She thanked him for having the political courage to bring the budget issues to the debate. However, she went further than any other potential POTUS candidate in calling for more and quicker cuts than even Paul Ryan's budget. In one interview, Gov Palin has positioned herself has the most fiscal conservative of the possible candidates. Her leaving her state with $12 billion surplus lends even more weight to her argument. The massive surplus in AK that Gov Palin left...

President Obama formally launched his re-election campaign Monday, urging grass-roots supporters central to his first White House run to mobilize again to protect the change he's brought over the past two years. The official start of his second White House bid comes 20 months before the November 2012 election. "We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. It never does," the Democrat said in an e-mail to

Here are the official numbers from Publisher’s Weekly (h/t cuatrocinco45): Nonfiction 1. Decision Points. George W. Bush. Crown (11/10) 2,653,565 2. Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth, and Treasure. Glenn Beck. Threshold Editions (10/10) *860,0002 3. Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything. Geneen Roth. Scribner (3/10) *850,000 4. Life. Keith Richards with James Fox. Little, Brown (10/10) 811,596 5. America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag. Sarah Palin. HarperCollins (11/10) 797,955 6. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race. Jon Stewart. Grand...

Organized labor vs. Tea Parties By Henry LambMarch 21, 2011 Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature kicked a rattlesnake when they significantly reduced the power of the state's public employee labor unions. Labor unions across the country have declared war on Republicans, even threatening death, and the Tea Parties that support them. A battle between organized labor and the Tea Parties is decidedly a one-sided battle. Organized labor receives regular income from every member, often deducted by the employer and paid directly to the labor union. National Education Association attorney, Bob Chanin says: "The NEA and its affiliates are...

Obama's Approval Rating Dropped in All 50 States in 2010 Washington, DC -- A new Gallup polling analysis finds pro-abortion President Barack Obama saw his approval rating drop in all 50 states in 2010 -- in what could be an indicator of a weakened position heading into his 2012 re-election campaign. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/23/obamas-approval-rating-dropped-in-all-50-states-in-2010/

Bolivia blames capitalism Mexico: Bolivian President Evo Morales said capitalism was responsible for climate change in his speech at the Climate Change Summit Thursday and he insisted on the need for the developed countries to make new commitments to reduce their greenhouse effect gas emissions. “We are sometimes debating only the effects of global warming, and not the causes, and we should be responsible and debate those causes,” said the Bolivian President in the high level segment of the 16th Climatic Change Summit in Cancun. Morales recalled the responsibility of the Governments so that key decisions are adopted to face...

The results of the CPAC straw poll of presidential candidates are in, and the winner is Ron Paul, with 30% of the vote. Mitt Romney was the runner-up with 23%, and all other candidates tied with about 6% each. 84% of the voters identified themselves as fiscal conservatives, placing their highest priority on economic growth and restraining the growth of government.

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza. Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group's 'sudden' appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011. Code...

<p>The U.S. economy accelerated in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Real gross domestic product rose at a 3.2% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, up from a 2.6% rate in the third quarter. The gain was slightly below expectations.</p>

School Salary Database Reveals What Ohio Educators Earned In 2010By Patrick Preston Published: January 18, 2011 COLUMBUS, Ohio - An updated salary database allows Ohioans to search the salaries of administrators and teachers in Ohio's 613 public school districts. The Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank based in Columbus, received the data from the Ohio Department of Education showing 1,800 public school employees made more than $100,000 in 2010. In the Columbus City School District, 78 employees earned more than six figures in 2010. Superintendent Gene Harris topped the list in Columbus with a salary of $185,912. The head of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Last year tied for the warmest since data started in 1880, capping a decade of record high temperatures that shows mankind's greenhouse gas emissions are heating the planet, two U.S. agencies said. Global surface temperatures in 2010 were 1.12 degrees Fahrenheit (0.62 Celsius) above the 20th century average, tying the record set in 2005, the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Wednesday. "These results show that the climate is continuing to show the influence of greenhouse gases. It's showing evidence of warming," David Easterling, the chief of the scientific services...