Free Republic

Had a interesting conversation with an IL Blue Cross Blue Shield who is working in DC on Obamacare. I was more frustrated that he was talking so calmly about the fact that states will not form the exchanges and will look to the Feds..."Single-payer?" "Yes." "That's not being explained in the media!" "It's not being released as yet" Even progressive states like Colorado can't do it. Since some states totally can't transition, the states will look to the Fed. Also since the any shopping portal will have to be developed by the carriers...only large Corporations like Blue Cross will survive....

I’m no fan of the the government now besmirching property owners who rent. All I could imagine while there, is how one day I may the vanguard of informants who snitch to the authorities about tenant energy wasters. So I must not refuse rent to protected classes, but when the State wishes to evict, I must comply. And I am now responsible for another’s behavior. This was an 8hr class. Why wasn’t the tenants who cause the trouble be required to sit and learn how not to sell drugs…

Most Recent News Items Date Title 09/10/2008 Austria's voestalpine Signs MOU With Bulgaria To Build €5.0 Billion Steel Mill In Black Sea Region   Abstract: September 10, 2008 -- Austrian steel producer voestalpine Group signed on Monday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bulgaria as part of plans to build a 5.0 billion euro ($7.16 billion) steel mill in the Black Sea region. 09/10/2008 Flebu Properties to Invest   Abstract: September 10, 2008 -- Flebu Eesti, controlled by Flebu, will invest EKr 50mn (US$ 4.71mn EUR 3.2mn) in the building of a production facility, with the floor area of 5,000...

Washington, DC—Today the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), America’s Voice, Center for New Community, and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) launched a print ad denouncing known hate group, FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform), for poisoning the immigration debate with bigoted, xenophobic hate speech. In support of the ad, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina issued the following statement: “It’s time that everyone learns who FAIR’s founders, leaders and followers truly are. They are not reformers, but a group of extremists whose leaders are fostering a bigoted, anti-immigrant, anti-American agenda that we must stop.” “We will not allow...

I listened to just a little of Milt Rosenberg's show (WGN Chicago) and he had Stanley Kurtz of the National Review as guest to discuss the Chicago Annenberg Challenge founded by Bill Ayers and whose board was chaired by Barack Obama. Milt was shocked at the large (and virtrol) amount of email on calls from the Obama camp. Milt said they contacted the Obama team and they declined to show.

Embracing Spirituality Q: “After you had a heart attack and a nervous breakdown at age 38, on the set of Apocalypse Now, you went to India and found spirituality. Is that when you embraced Catholicism?” A: “I did, yeah. I was raised Catholic, but it was a religion, not a way of life. [After the heart attack] I came back to a faith more than a church. I came back with joy and with freedom and thanksgiving rather than with fear or trembling or worrying about eternity. I decided that what I really loved the most about the faith was...

It is Daisy’s policy to only sell directly, via phone order or internet order, to persons 21 years of age or older who complete and submit this affidavit of age. You must already have an affidavit on file or complete one now in order for us to be able to process your order. State statutes and/or local ordinances prohibit the sale and possession of air guns, CO2 guns and slingshots in some areas. We are unable to ship airguns into Chicago, Morton Grove, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Manhattan, Queens, New York City and Staten Island. Persons in...

The U.S. is the new place to go for low-cost manufacturing. As unlikely as it might seem, companies overseas are starting to get that image as they begin sending work to U.S. job shops. “Over the last six months, activity from the U.K. to the U.S. has picked up dramatically. Before that, it was insignificant,” says Mitch Free, owner of Mfg.com, a Web site for sourcing and selling manufacturing services. “We also see work coming back from Canada because the Canadian dollar now has a 28% disadvantage against the U.S. dollar. Canadian manufacturers who get contracts from the U.S. tell...

The highest court in the land refused to hear his plea. Now only one person can help George Ryan: President Bush. » Click to enlarge image Former Gov. Jim Thompson will ask President Bush to commute former Gov. George Ryan's prison sentence. The Supreme Court rejected Ryan's appeal to overturn his conviction on corruption charges on Tuesday. (Sun-Times) RELATED STORIESComplete Ryan trial coverage Pardon vs. commutation What's the difference between a pardon and a commutation? Pardon: Erases a conviction, such as a felony. Commutation: Conviction stands, but erases prison term, or trades a longer sentence with a shorter one. (Gov....

ATK Ammunition & Related Products March 13, 2008 Dear ATK Ammunition Customer: Over the last two years and as we move into the second quarter of 2008 we continue to see unprecedented raw material cost escalation in our business.As a result we are forced to announce a price increase effective April 1, 2008. This will include a 9% increase in all promotional ammunition and a 5% increase in other standard catalog ammunition products. New pricing and programs will be communicated to you shortly. We appreciate your understanding.

I just returned from a Feed My Starving Childen meal packing event in Mt Prospect, IL (NW Suburb of Chicago). What a wonderful time had by all and such a worthy cause.

I recently wrote a letter to my older sister asking forgiveness of any transgressions and ending bitterness and resentment. She's seemingly a follower of the occult. The whole nine yards: Talking to the dead, soothsaying, hypnotherapy, spiritual healing, Crystals, oils, etc. What to do...Just pray? I'm weary to start my crusade and creating bad blood between us so soon after an exchange of forgiveness. In her reply letter, she had mentioned Dr, Michael Ryce. That and a smattering of fairies, starseed... WTF?

There were no words, in English or Spanish, that an ailing Maria Carrillo could utter Tuesday when told her family had been given a temporary reprieve from deportation to Mexico. Her 15-year-old daughter translated "catorce meses" -- 14 months -- when the family must return to an immigration courtroom in downtown Chicago. The girl then asked her mother, on behalf of a reporter, for a reaction. » Click to enlarge image Maria Carrillo leaves an immigration hearing where she was granted a temporary reprieve. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times) Carrillo, 46, a short woman with graying hair, turned from her daughter, her husband,...

SPRINGFIELD - Illinois' minimum wage shoots up to $7.50 an hour today, a move heralded as helping working men and women by the Democrats who pushed it, but which ironically may have cost a suburban company two state contracts and eliminated dozens of downstate jobs. Hoffman Estates-based Rely Services has a data-entry center in downstate Carlinville, which for years held state contracts to manually input tax and vehicle data. But in bidding to keep those contracts, the company was undercut, in part, its officials say, because out-of-state firms can pay their employees a lower minimum wage. As a result, the...

Bottom line, HB 1100 will make our streets and highways safer for everyone in Illinois. This is a public safety issue. HB 1100 affords immigrants the opportunity to secure a driver's certificate -- not a driver's license -- after passing a driver's exam, obtaining mandatory auto insurance, and paying a required $50 fee. We applaud the legislators who recognized the issue and put public safety ahead of politics. The Illinois Nurserymen's Association partnered with the Illinois Immigration Coalition for Refuge Rights in support of HB 1100 largely because a significant percentage of the association's members rely on guest workers to...

O'HARE AIRPORT -- A subcontractor for Air France who had full access to O'Hare International Airport faces new charges that he tried to smuggle military-style equipment out of the U.S. Riad Skaff, 67, was charged in January with plotting to smuggle $400,000 in cash through the airport. He was seized in an undercover operation run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

TWO Army sniffer dogs have fallen victim to the Taliban and are shell-shocked. Golden labrador Max was on patrol with his handler in the Afghan capital Kabul when a suicide bomber struck. Luckily, the soldiers escaped serious injury, although the bomber was so close they were blown off their feet by the blast. But Max has been suffering shellshock ever since. The four-year-old dog is happy around British troops at the sprawling Camp Bastion desert base he currently calls home. But he is now too frightened to work around local Afghans in traditional dress. Handlers at the Muttley Lines kennels...

The CIA learned in late September 2002 from a high-level member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle that Iraq had no past or present contact with Osama bin Laden and that the Iraqi leader considered bin Laden an enemy of the Baghdad regime, according to a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report. Although President Bush and other senior administration officials were at that time regularly linking Hussein to al-Qaeda, the CIA's highly sensitive intelligence supporting the contrary view was apparently not passed on to the White House or senior Bush policymakers.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Sept 8, 2006 – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in a joint effort with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, performed the first-ever autonomous probe-and-drogue airborne refueling operation August 30, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The demonstration was conducted with a NASA F/A-18 configured to operate as an unmanned test bed. The Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration (AARD) system used GPS-based relative navigation, coupled with an optical tracker, to provide the precise positioning required to put a refueling probe into the center of a 32-inch basket dangling in the air stream behind an airborne...