Free Republic

A data center critical for allowing uninsured Americans to buy health coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law went down on Sunday, the U.S. government said, in the latest problem for the "Obamacare'' rollout. Verizon's Terremark operates the data center behind a federal system for determining eligibility for government subsidies to buy insurance nationwide and hosts HealthCare.gov, the website that makes insurance available in 36 of the 50 states. The data center experienced a failure on Sunday that led it to lose network connectivity, Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Joanne Peters said. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...

Illinois "Progressives" (a single word to describe "economically illiterate public union sympathizers") want to pick your pocket once again. The Progressives want to hike the Illinois 2015 top tax rate from 3.75% to a whopping 9%. Moreover the income tax rate will go up on a sliding scale for everyone making over $18,000. Promises, Promises Recall that On the campaign trail in 2010, Gov. Pat Quinn told voters he'd veto any income tax hike that would raise Illinois' rate over 4 percent. That was one of the quickest disclosed tax lies in history. Here are a few snips from my...

Unemployment is not getting better, it’s getting worse. Even the establishment media is taking notice. “Widely followed pollster Gallup puts the nation's unemployment rate at an ugly 8.6 percent in August,” reports CNBC, “a startling jump from the 7.8 percent the organization recorded for July. When counting the underemployed, the rate zooms to 17.7 percent, off its 2013 high of 18.2 percent.” If you count in those who have dropped out of the work force, you get closer to 24 percent unemployment. Gee, and all this time I thought that the job situation was getting better. That’s what we were...

Sunday, October 07, 2012 The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 47%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and two percent (2%) are undecided. These results are based upon nightly interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, today’s update is the first based entirely upon interviews conducted after the first presidential debate last Wednesday night. The numbers reflect a modest debate bounce for Romney. See daily tracking history. As with all bounces, it remains to...

In the wake of the Daily Caller’s release of President Obama cheering Rev. Wright and invoking the race card in various ways, our friend Morgen Richmond decided the time was right to release some little-known Obama video of his own. He authorized me to release the video here first. The following clips are from 2002. Obama is speaking in a church at a 2002 Martin Luther King Jr. Day memorial service. The full speech is here, and by and large it is a nice speech by a rising politician. Obama speaks about the need for empathy in society, about taking...

Former Israeli delegate for Congressional matters in Washington and a top expert on relations with the U.S., Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, thinks Israeli fears of a hostile second term Obama presidency are overblown. In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Ettinger explained that contrary to popular perception, "The bottom line is that a second term president is always weaker than a first term president. This is true for all second term American presidents other than one – James Monroe. A second term president becomes less and less relevant for both chambers of Congress from the day of his reelection. This this...

September 30, 2012 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicts presidential race will be “turned upside down” after first debate Francesca Chambers New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Sunday on Face the Nation that he thinks the presidential race will be “turned upside down” on Thursday morning after GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama debate each other for the first time on Wednesday evening in the first 2012 general election debate.Christie admitted Romney has had “a tough couple of weeks,” but said, ”the great news for Republicans” is that Romney is a wonderful debater and will do “extraordinarily...

As the UN digs in its ever-sharper, global-grasping claws, there are less and less desirable places to relocate. The New World Order permeates and invades all. Agenda 21? This is how it is done in Australia. Been going on for years... We know a family who live in Sydney’s Parramatta. The oldest girl, now in her 80’s, lives in the family home which was built in the early 1900’s. She was invited to a meeting with Parramatta Council and she and others were told that the Council “could not tolerate” for much longer that there was only one or two...

<p>A Las Vegas “odds maker” gives his reasons for big win by Romney in November. Interesting analysis.</p> <p>Most political predictions are made by biased pollsters, pundits, or prognosticators who are either rooting for Republicans or Democrats.</p> <p>I am neither. I am a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, and a well-known Vegas odds maker with one of the most accurate records of predicting political races.</p>

Fifty-five percent of small business owners and manufacturers would not have started their businesses in today’s economy, according to a new poll that also reports 69 percent say President Obama’s regulatory policies have hurt their businesses. “There is far too much uncertainty, too many burdensome regulations and ... 67 percent say there is too much uncertainty in the market today to expand, grow or hire new workers.” Why? Because “President Obama’s Executive Branch and regulatory policies have hurt American small businesses and manufacturers,” according to 69 percent of the business owners surveyed.

Unemployment rates rose in more than half of U.S. states last month, the latest evidence that hiring remains tepid across the country. The Labor Department says rates increased in 26 states. They fell in 12 states and were unchanged in the other 12. Unemployment also rose in seven of the 11 key swing states in this year's presidential election. Nationwide, hiring employers added only 96,000 jobs in August, below July's gain of 141,000 and the average of 226,000 jobs a month added in January-March quarter. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July. But that...

September 15, 2012 Obama Polling Worse Among Jews Than Any Dem in 32 Years Daniel Greenfield You have to go all the way back to Jimmy Carter in 1980 to find a Democratic candidate who’s polling worse among Jews than Obama is. And that’s no coincidence. Carter scored big numbers against Ford in 1976 only to lose a major chunk of Jewish supporters after four years of pro-Terrorist policies that undermined Israel and security and stability in the Middle East.Obama reportedly scored 76 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008. Carter picked up 71 percent in 1976. By 1980, Carter...

This morning's newspapers report an ominous development in the ObamaCare litigation, now pending in the U.S. Supreme Court: The Court posted a seemingly minor but potentially portentous administrative change, which suggests it might postpone delivering a final ruling on the constitutionality of ObamaCare until the middle of 2016! Specifically, the high Court increased the time it will devote to hearing oral arguments on whether the health care mandate is a tax for purposes of something called the Tax Anti-Injunction Act (26 U.S.C. § 7421(a)). The historically lengthy oral arguments in the case, HHS v. Florida -- now expanded by 30...

The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills. "I will be unable to invest fully" the federal employees retirement system fund beginning Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday on the Obama administration's request to raise the country's legal debt limit to $16.394 trillion.

New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs. Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged remark by Michelle Obama...

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Herman Cain said a new accuser would be coming forward to accuse him of having a 13-year affair with him. No links yet as the story is currently breaking and details are still being released. Apparentally a Georgia TV station has the exclusive.

Co-founder of the Serbian "Otpor" movement activists, the recommended occupation of a "symbolic places" in U.S. . Belgrade. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and overthrow Serbian professionals, according to the movement conservative conspiracy theories "keep Wall Street Busy" (also: "Occupy") have initiated. Actually there was a veteran of the Serbian "Otpor" movement, which had once brought Slobodan Milosevic to fall, the first gave U.S. activists a crucial advice: the occupation of a symbolic places. The Serbian opposition professionals are by no means a revolution Exporters: Most of the seminars offer anyway on Canvas, founder of European and U.S. universities. "We,...

Unions representing around half of Greece's 4 million-strong workforce have called a 48 hour general strike for Wednesday and Thursday to protest against a sweeping package of austerity measures due to be passed in parliament this week. A wave of smaller strikes over recent days by groups ranging from rubbish collectors to tax officials, journalists and seamen has given a foretaste of this week's protest which will culminate in mass demonstrations in front of parliament, the scene of violent clashes in June. The protest, dubbed "the mother of all strikes" by the daily Ta Nea newspaper, is expected to be...

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) – NBC12 has uncovered one of those stories that makes you think: "How in the world does that happen?!" A truck filled with President Obama's podiums and audio equipment was stolen in Henrico just days before his visit to Chesterfield. We confirmed an investigation with the U.S. Defense Department. There are still a lot of questions. The biggest one being did the thieves intentionally target the President's truck or did they take advantage of a crime of opportunity and give a big "uh-oh" when they saw what was inside. When you see President Obama speak, there is...