Free Republic

"The Boston Marathon bombers hated America, but they loved the American dole. The suspects in the scheme to murder and maim innocent men, women and children were living off the generosity of the American taxpayers they hated. The Boston Herald reports that the 'brains' of the operation, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was on the Massachusetts dole with his wife, Katherine, and their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara. The parents of the Tsarnaev brothers received welfare and the accused brother, Dzhokhar, received benefits when he was a child. Taxpayer generosity to the Tsarnaev family did not end there. The city of Cambridge awarded Dzhokhar a...

The economic impact of the Boston Marathon bomb suspect manhunt could run into the billions of dollars, according to one expert, as a million city residents were stuck at home, stores were shuttered and public transit ground to a halt. Boston businesses were advised to remain closed, city employees were told to stay home or remain in place at work, vehicular traffic was limited and travel into the city via Amtrak and discount bus lines was suspended.

Military draft registration could be coming to an end as two lawmakers are on a campaign to abolish the Selective Service System. Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, and Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican from Colorado, are the ones leading the charge to end military draft registration. They say the agency wastes millions of dollars each year preparing for the possibility of a military draft, The Associated Press noted.

If or when the Pentagon lets women become infantry troops -- the country's front-line warfighters -- how many women will want to? The answer is probably not many. Interviews with a dozen female soldiers and Marines showed little interest in the toughest fighting jobs. They believe they'd be unable to do them, even as the Defense Department inches toward changing its rules to allow women in direct ground combat jobs. In fact, the Marines asked women last year to go through its tough infantry officer training to see how they would fare. Only two volunteered and both failed to complete...

A Senate committee has refused to approve a promotion to admiral for a Navy officer who, as a young fighter pilot during a training mission, deliberately shot down an Air Force plane whose flier has suffered a life of pain from his forced ejection. The Senate Armed Services Committee took no confirmation vote on the nomination of Capt. Tiimothy W. Dorsey as the 112th Congress ended. Because the Senate did not act, the nomination goes back to the White House. The Navy has the option of trying to resubmit his nomination during the 113t Congress, which convened Thursday.

Today Vice President Joe Biden met with gun victims and safety groups as part of a continuing effort by his task force to come up with solutions to gun violence in the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings. The highlight of the meeting came when Biden announced that the White House is prepared to act through executive action to implement gun control measures. Biden stated...

If gun-control advocates and our media want to have a conversation about government restrictions on gun ownership, I think that’s fine. Debating more issues, rather than fewer, is probably good for our politics. But the conversation about guns needs to be a bit more factually precise. Today’s New York Times story on the AR-15 has a lot of good information and aims to be balanced, but the story still manages to perpetuate many of the most stubborn myths about rifles. Some points I would like to make in response:

Female Marine officers are unlikely to join the infantry anytime soon, in part because of a lack of volunteers for the Marine Corps' Infantry Officer Course, which was opened to women in September. Only two of about 80 eligible female Marines have volunteered for the course -- a grueling, three-month advanced regimen conducted at Quantico, Va., that was opened to women to research their performance. Of the two female volunteers, one washed out on the first day, along with 26 of the107 men, and the other dropped out two weeks later for medical reasons, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

Today was National Dance for Obama Day, in which flash mobs were organized as part of a get out the vote effort in numerous cities. The weekend before Election Day, we’re turning up the heat and encouraging people to get out and vote with flash mobs across the country. In Manhattan, the flash mob took place at Herald Square, 34th Street and 6th Avenue in the heart of Midtown far from the chaos elsewhere in the city. Nonetheless, only about 12 dancers showed up in this GOTV effort.

Obama and Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy has already impacted the campaigning for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. But is it going to affect the elections? Indications are that the ground work is already being laid to blame Hurricane Sandy on poor turnout and undesired results. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

When Mother Nature demonstrates her extraordinary power, I always hope that people will draw a lesson from it, but they never seem to. Hurricane Sandy is just the latest example of the futility and foolishness of thinking that humans can do anything about a hurricane or similar demonstration of who is really in charge. It is the planet. Not us.

You don’t have to be black, Muslim, or homosexual to get ahead through government employment. You can also be a dwarf, clinically insane, or just really, really dumb. A piece that came out in PJ Tatler last August sheds some light on the quality of personnel in the Injustice Department.

The team behind the television movie "SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden" is saying the film was not recut to give a starring role to President Barack Obama two days before the presidential election. National Geographic Channels CEO David Lyle says the film was indeed recut - but to show less footage of the president than an earlier version of the film.

Earlier today Barack Obama told Denver’s WUSA TV this in regard to the Benghazi 9-11 terror attack, “I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to. Number two, we’re going to investigate exactly what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice.”

The Navy said Saturday it is replacing the admiral in command of an aircraft carrier strike group in the Middle East, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into undisclosed allegations of inappropriate judgment. Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette is being sent back to the USS John C. Stennis' home port at Bremerton, Wash., in what the Navy called a temporary reassignment. The Navy said he is not formally relieved of his command of the Stennis strike group but will be replaced by Rear Adm. Troy M. Shoemaker, who will assume command until the investigation is completed. It is highly...

Two trailblazing women who became the first female participants in the notoriously brutal Marine Corps’ Infantry Officer Course have dropped out of the program, according to the Stars and Stripes. The two female lieutenants failed to complete the combat endurance test portion of the program, as did 26 male Marines.

The U.S. Census, always seeking ways to go above and beyond its constitutional role of counting the number of people in the United States, may be planning to ask questions regarding sexual orientation in the 2020 Census community survey.

With CNN’s Candy Crowley shamelessly throwing President Obama a Libya life-preserver at Tuesday night’s debate, the so-called Mohammed video is back in the news. That ought to offend sensible people — and not just because the president, aided and abetted by Ms. Crowley, is lying when he now claims, despite weeks of denials, to have regarded the Benghazi massacre from the first as a pre-planned terrorist attack.

Expectations are high leading up to the President Obama's acceptance speech in Charlotte, NC on Thursday evening, as they were last week in Tampa for Republican nominee Mitt Romney. With a campaign slogan like "Forward" you'd think, and hope, the Obama Administration has moved passed the blame game politics of the last four years, pointing the finger at the Bush Administration as the root of all of America's economic problems. "What you're going to hear is 'we have done everything we could to right the ship, to make sure that we are headed towards recovery. We may not be there...

When you squint your eyes and look only at the broad historical trends at play in this presidential election, all signs point to a victory for Mitt Romney in November. Back in February, the Signal's first draft of its elections model, which relied only on historical data, predicted that Obama would win the election with 303 electoral votes. This model relies heavily on economic indicators and was published before the dismal second quarter economic figures. If you apply that same model through June, Romney wins with 290 electoral votes to Obama's 248.

The commanding officer of a Florida-based warship was removed from the post during an overseas deployment after several female crew members alleged that he sexually harassed women aboard ship, a Navy report shows. Cmdr. Derick Armstrong was relieved of command in May, about six months after his promotion to the top job aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans. Of the 1,500 commanding officers in the Navy, 22 were removed from the job last year for various reasons. Armstrong is among a dozen commanding officers removed so far this year.

The Evansville Museum in Indiana corrected their misidentification of a glass piece of art held in storage for 50 years. The rediscovered artwork is a valuable Picasso original gemmaux work, created by baking different pieces of colored glass, titled "Seated woman with Red Hat." Documentation associated with the piece incorrectly indicated it was by an artist named "Gemmaux" with a design inspired by a Picasso oil painting, and the work was kept in storage for decades.

A new law in Indiana authorizes the general public to use deadly force against public servants (including law enforcement officers) who unlawfully enter private property. The measure, approved by Gov. Mitch Daniels in March, (who himself is a Bilderberg member, making the situation even more interesting) is a real game changer as the script has been flipped on the police when it comes to deadly force.

The man accused of the shooting rampage in a Denver-area screening of the latest "Batman" movie mailed a notebook detailing his plans to a psychiatrist days before the attack, FoxNews.com reported on Wednesday, as the first funeral was held for one of the 12 people killed. The package allegedly from the suspected shooter, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, remained unopened in a mailroom, perhaps for as long as a week before its discovery Monday, FoxNews.com reported, citing a law enforcement source.

Torrence Brown Jr., one of the Aurora movie shooting survivors, is planning on suing the theater, confirmed his family's publicist on Wednesday. "We're going to make sure whoever is accountable is going to take responsibility for this tragedy," Cassandra Williams of Wet PR said. She said that Brown, who was friends with 18-year-old AJ Boik, one of the shooting victims, is handling the criticism his suit has sparked. "We know it goes with the territory, so he's fine," Williams said. She added that Brown, 18, is seeking therapy and is emotionally distraught after the shooting.

[Snip]...I have long felt that one of the biggest threats to the U.S. ethanol industry is a major drought/crop failure in the heart of corn country. This year we may be experiencing such an event. Recent reports indicate that what had been expected to be a record crop of corn has been downgraded such that only 40% of the corn crop is being classified as in good or excellent condition. This is down 48% versus last week and 69% versus a year ago.

If you ever want to strip down naked at Portland International Airport, congratulations — there’s now a legal precedent that puts you in the clear. John Brennan, 50, was found not guilty this week over indecent exposure charges filed earlier this year. On April 17, Brennan was attempting to fly out of Portland International in the state of Oregon when a routine security screening raised a red flag. After a TSA agent allegedly identified traces of nitrate on Brennan’s body, the would-be passenger stripped off his clothes in what he says was an act of protest.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and the FBI are trying to figure out how needles got into turkey sandwiches served aboard four flights from Amsterdam. One passenger was injured. The airline said that what appear to be sewing needles were found in five sandwiches on Sunday. One passenger on a flight to Minneapolis was injured, but the passenger declined to get medical attention, according to Delta spokeswoman Kristin Baur. The other needles were on two flights to Atlanta and one to Seattle.

Updated at 6:17 p.m. ET] The U.S. Navy's new class of carriers will be the first to go without urinals, a decision made in part to give the service flexibility in accommodating female sailors, the Navy says. The change heralded by the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers – starting with the namesake carrier due in late 2015 – is one of a number of new features meant to improve sailors' quality of life and reduce maintenance costs, Capt. Chris Meyer said Wednesday. Omitting urinals lets the Navy easily switch the designation of any restroom – or head, in naval...

Come September, a small group of young female Marines will break through one of the last bastions of macho in the U.S. military. They’ll be the first class of female officers to take part in the grueling Infantry Officer Course in Quantico, Va., a test of both physical fitness and mental will that prepares the corps’ future platoon leaders. All of these women will be volunteers, and their training will be closely watched. The new coed class has sparked suggestions that such training could lead to integrating women in the Marine infantry, with some saying they “would make excellent grunts.”

From NPR: "First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him ... they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America," Freeman said.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka celebrates Independence Day today by bashing freedom. The Examiner reported: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has a 4th of July-themed column in the Huffington Post musing on the word freedom and how it is interpreted by the Republican Party. His conclusion is that they use the word to con people. Let’s call this right-wing “freedom” catch phrase what it really is: a grossly political strategy to dupe the public, which holds the word “freedom” as something sacred.

The Republican National Committee, keeping up on their social media campaigns like we haven’t seen before in a presidential election, have already released an ad absolutely belittling Obama for saying that families making under $250,000 a year would not see a tax increase. Well, Mr. Obama, your little tax increase yesterday may just come back and bite you in the bum. As pointed out in this article, the penalty for not following the direction of the individual mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health care coverage is not a fine, but a tax.

Here’s a Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare...[SNIP]...Exemptions for religious objectors, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS [poster's emphasis], prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS)

A convenience store clerk who was fired recently for refusing to sell cigarettes to a customer trying to pay for them with state welfare benefits has been fired, but her story has gained traction in local and national media. According to press reports, Jackie Whiton was working at a C.N. Brown Big Apple convenience store recently when a man in his 20s attempted to purchase cigarettes using an electronic benefit transfer card, which is issued to families in New Hampshire and Maine who are on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF program. Whiton, a six-year employee of the...

By now the whole world has seen the video of a group of middle school boys bullying Karen Klein, the school bus monitor in Greece, New York. The boys have been vilified, their families threatened, and the school board will decide whether the boys will be suspended for the entire 2012-2013 school year. An online site has collected more than $500,000 for Klein and she is being showered with gifts, including an expense-paid trip to Disney World by ABC, which owns the theme park. An important issue, however, is not being addressed. What were Klein’s qualifications for being a school...

Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court decided that Americans have no right to due process. Indeed, the Court not only upheld a fraud perpetrated on the public — it became a willing participant. The assessment charged for failure to comply with ObamaCare’s “individual mandate,” which requires Americans to purchase health insurance, was presented to the country by the administration and the Democratic Congress as a penalty assessed for lawlessness — i.e., for refusing to honor this new legal requirement. It was strenuously denied by proponents that they were raising taxes.

A silver lining for conservatives in the Supreme Court’s health care decision Thursday is that the court allowed the law to stand based on the idea that the individual mandate was a tax. That news has Republicans and conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh bringing out an old -- and incorrect claim -- that the health care law constitutes the largest tax increase ever.

Faced with a complex, hard-to-solve problem, there is a natural human tendency to solve a much simpler, easier one instead. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, dubs this cognitive process “substitution.” We know our political system is broken. The signs are everywhere: knee-jerk partisanship, massive debts and unfunded liabilities, widespread citizen dissatisfaction, trillion-dollar deficits, rampant public and private corruption, and a federal government that has less support than King George III at the time of the American Revolution. But fixing the system is a staggeringly complex undertaking. The causes of its dysfunction are deep and...

Across the country, Republicans are fighting off tea party threats while Democrats are dragged down by anti-incumbent sentiment and a president who remains unpopular in many competitive states. But on Tuesday, Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch is expected to defy those trends and win re-election handily, with experience and a novice challenger helping to boost his odds. Similarly, Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel certainly has years of congressional service on his side--41 to be exact--and faces lesser-known opponents, but redistricting changes could thwart the Congressman's chances of winning.

There aren’t Greek columns tall or wide enough to camouflage Barack Obama’s impending North Carolina catastrophe. In September, the campaigner-in-chief will travel to Charlotte for his party’s presidential nominating convention. For once, the incurable jetsetter may wish he had stayed home. Obama’s stage managers envision a triumphant, unifying coronation reminiscent of their 2008 DNC production in Denver. But the southern swing state is turning into a Democratic disaster zone. Start with the North Carolina Democratic Party. At the state party convention last week, Obama for America was AWOL. The glaring absence of high-level national Obama surrogates was noted “as odd,”...

(Just In Case the November Elections Don't Work Out)Video of weapon @ link.

White House press secretary Jay Carney made an “angry phone call” to a Fox News executive after the network aired a scathing video review last month of President Barack Obama’s first three years in office, the New York Times reported. According to the Times, Carney told Michael Clemente, Fox News’ senior vice president for news, that the video had crossed the line even for “Fox & Friends,” the morning show where it aired. Two unnamed Democrats reportedly told the newspaper about the call, described as a “private conversation.”

There is a school of thought among GOP party pros that Fast and Furious is a distraction, that President Obama would rather talk about anything other than the economy. Much as I admire the insight and focus of people like Karl Rove, President Obama and his coterie are showing unmistakable signs of desperation. We witnessed the President's gum chewing demeanor, and awful presser performance in Los Cabos at the G20 summit -- a televised disaster that commandeered prime time television in the East.

If you believe the headlines, President Barack Obama has gotten back into the good graces of Latino voters by deferring the deportation of tens of thousands of young people. But any reasonable voter who actually thinks this is a meaningful and substantive move by Obama is, frankly, a chump. . . . . . . . . . Obama has told Hispanic audiences time and again that he feels "very strongly" about immigration reform. But, in fact, he has never spent much of his limited political capital on it.

"Legislatively we can't do a thing, and we are going to move full speed ahead (with implementation).” -- A Democratic “congressional official” talking to the Associated Press about plans in the Obama administration to proceed with the president’s 2010 health law even if the Supreme Court strikes down its central provision requiring all Americans to either purchase insurance or be enrolled in a government program. The looming Supreme Court decision on President Obama’s 2010 health law has Washington in a state of high anxiety.

Call it a variation on a theme: Dogs have been registered to vote, and so have dead people—so why not a dead dog? Roanoke, Va., NBC affiliate WSLS reports that Tim Morris, a resident of the town of Goodview, was surprised when he opened a recent piece of mail and found it contained voter registration forms for “Mo” (h/t Matt Drudge). Morris claims that he laughed, initially thinking it was all a prank. That is because Mo was the family’s nickname for their poodle, Mozart, who has been dead for two years.

In October 1984, a 21-year-old American Airman deserted and hitch-hiked from an Air Force base in Augsburg, Germany to Stockholm. He built himself a life in Sweden – never sharing his secret with anyone, while becoming one of the U.S. Air Force’s eight most wanted fugitives. Today, David A. Hemler, 49, comes forward in an exclusive interview with Dagens Nyheter (DN), Stockholm.

Female submariners are fitting right in. Since reporting to their boats in November, 25 women who broke one of the Navy's final gender barriers have gone on patrol and been accepted among their crews. "The men adjusted to us being there, and we adjusted to them," said Lt. j.g. Megan Bittner of the USS Ohio gold crew. "It was quick. There were no big problems. No stumbling blocks along the way. It was just learning as a junior officer how you fit on the boat."

Russia must start development of a long-range bomber aircraft, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting on defense orders. "We have to develop work on the new PAK-DA long-range bomber aircraft for Long-Range Aviation. I know how expensive and complex this is. We have talked about this many times with ministers, and with the head of the General Staff. The task is not easy from a scientific-technical standpoint, but we need to start work," Putin said.