Free Republic

I've had an idea how to get the Budget process fixed, and maybe Capitol Hill as well: I have a genuinely bi-partisan solution to the underlying budget problem. An Amendment to the Constitution. With the following terms: A budget, NOT a continuing resolution, must be passed by the House and submitted to the Senate by June 1st of every year. The Senate must hold a vote on the budget by July 1st of every year. If the House and Senate cannot agree on a budget, they MUST go into conference on the budget on the next business day, and neither...

Realized something this morning. The general consensus is, that the Employer Mandate is being delayed to preserve the Democrats' chances of winning the House in 2014 Now, despite the plain language in the bill requiring the Mandate be in place 1 Jan 2014, the one-year slip is going to be an issue. BUT. . . of course, the Geniuses at the Most Transparent Administration EVER have forgotten something important, as is their usual level of "brilliance". The WARN Act ( http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/layoffs.htm ). You know. . . the one that requires companies with more than 100 employees to give 60 days...

WHAT is Operation Baen Bulk ?? OBB is a different kind of support for the troops. Instead of focusing on individuals, we support entire UNITS, by finding what they need, or want, and can't easily or quickly get while deployed. . .and get it to them. In LARGE quantities. Think of it as the Warehouse Club approach to Soldier Support: we use the power of buying and shipping in bulk, to maximize the stuff delivered to our troops, out at the pointy end of the spear, and minimize things like waste, shipping costs, etc. And in the process, generally deliver...

For former IRS staff and tax experts, the case confirms what they view as one of the agency's long-standing weaknesses: its inability to cope with the growing number of tax-exempt advocacy groups that appear to stretch the law to engage in politics. With the IRS now under fire for its practices, campaign finance lawyers anticipate that the agency will shy away even more from regulating such organizations. At the heart of the issue is the murky role occupied by nonprofit "social welfare" organizations, set up under Section 501(c)4 of the tax code, which are allowed under IRS regulations to engage...

Bill Whittle (of EjectEjectEject and PJTV fame) gives the speech we ALL need to hear. . . Whittle at Restoration Weekend

The National Weather Service's forecast center in College Park, Md., which watches winter storms, put out a long-range notice Thursday saying a nor'easter was possible for mid-Atlantic and New England states by Election Day through next Thursday. Forecaster Bruce Sullivan said it wouldn't be as bad as Superstorm Sandy and isn't tropical. But it could include snow in interior New England and New York, beach erosion and high winds for areas hit by Sandy and moderate or heavier rainfall. Winds could be about 30 to 40 mph. "I wouldn't get too alarmed yet," Sullivan said. "But it's something we're going...

The lyrics, re-calibrated to actual reality: Imagine an America Where the Lefties are running free Where all guns are nixed And politicians lie But the birth control is free We are not allowed to worship! Our news is good enough Give us higher tax And more business whacks As we bow to Chinese lords. . . We’re the children of Obama True Socialist through and through But they won’t let us re-distribute And so now we’re blaming you We haven’t killed all the jobs yet But it’s not for lack of trying Well, my dad was sacked The Fed is...

Anyone else getting "spam" emails linking to the "Innocence of Muslims" trailer, and asking you to Report it ??? I've gotten 4 today. . . Wonder if someone is trying to do an Astroturf. . . .

The Right’s Twenty Rules of Racism: 1. Anyone responsible for three hundred years of slavery would have to be a lot older than you and me. 2. There has to be some genetics in “racism’s” DNA, some DNA in its gene pool, or it just isn’t racism. 3. Racism could be eliminated in the United States if we could just eliminate the white liberals who so plainly depend on it so much and do so much to keep it going. 4. Reality isn’t racist: The reality is that there are pond-scummy gallows bait in every group. Some of those will...

Getting Guns Right by Michael Z. Williamson Once again lately, firearms are in the news. This seems odd. The news is about the unusual, and after 700 or more years in use, firearms are hardly unusual. In America, they've been a vital part of the culture since its inception. Yet we're still debating the subject, and the media almost always gets its facts wrong. At its basic level, a firearm is a piston engine. A propellant is ignited and powers a projectile down a bore. Instead of working a crank, it is forced out in a chosen direction. The impact...

Found a good deal for the Preppers out there: Woot! is selling a good Gamo Air Rifle, .177 caliber, for $135 bucks including shipping. Gamo Varmint Stalker with Scope I've been looking at Air Rifles/Pellet Guns to add to my collection of useful tools, and got this deal in the mail this morning. It won't last long: Woot's deal is 1 day or whenever they sell out, whichever comes first. . . . I grabbed one, many of you will probably like this deal too, about half retail, and about a third off of general online prices.

The headline: Buried, burned, and blown up: Bomb disposal crews explode chemicals in undisclosed location after officials found 'mind-boggling' stash of ammunition in killer's lair

An American Navy ship fired on a boat in the Persian Gulf today, killing one person and injuring three others aboard the craft, U.S. naval officials told ABC News. Lt. Greg Raelson, a spokesperson for the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain, said that a security team aboard the oil supply ship U.S.N.S. Rappahannock fired a .50 caliber machine gun at a "small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the U.S. ship" off the coast of Jebel Ali, a city approximately 30 miles from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

I don't like shilling my own stuff, but this is a little different. So here we go. . . Good evening, fellow Freepers. I’ve been here on FreeRepublic for 12 years now, and also the founder of a small informal organization that delivers support to the deployed troops in unit-size lots, instead of individual CARE packages. We’re kicking off our annual push tomorrow, and are asking for your support. . . I’m including our standard one-page “elevator pitch”. Our current outfit being supported is the 60th Ordnance Company, aka the Wolfpack, which recently deployed to Afghanistan. Please take a look...

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Sure, provide free contraception. But if you're getting taxpayer-paid contraception, you must provide sex on demand from any taxpayer. After all, the current system discriminates against the ugly, the fat, the shy. . . . (grinning like hell, diving for cover. . . )

Several of my friends have been discussing the Fluke issue, and the larger issue of the entire Mandate. It's flamingly obvious that this is to get the discussion away from the economy in general, and gas prices in particular. And THEN a friend had the idea: USE it to turn the talk back to the Economy: How bad is the economy when a young woman can’t even afford the price of a condom? or This poor young woman can’t afford to pay for her own birth control. Four years ago, she could have. . . . Any better ideas ??

Sumner looked up from the incident report to find Secretary of State Ernest Tyszczenko and Secretary of Defense Isaac Guillory staring down at him expectantly. "I wouldn't have believed it if it had been any less blatant or less well documented," Sumner said. Guillory nodded. "It was witnessed by more than thirty people, most of them First Division troops." "Where's the murderer now?" "The Afghan foreign minister claims he's in custody awaiting trial," Tyszczenko murmured. "Oh? Really?" Sumner rose and stood with arms akimbo. "Awaiting trial? We'll see about that." He stabbed at the intercom button on his desk phone....

Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation's Armed Forces at home. During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/06/military-growing-terrorist-target-lawmakers-warn/#ixzz1fsu7tKoG

(Excerpt) President Obama has an unwelcome holiday gift for New Yorkers — he’ll be coming to Midtown the same day the streets will be impossibly clogged by the Rockefeller Plaza tree-lighting ceremony. He has picked Wednesday, one of the busiest gridlock-alert days of the year, to descend on the area with his motorcade for a fund-raiser and party. While throngs squeeze into the blocks around Rockefeller Center, where teen heartthrob Justin Bieber will be performing, the president and his entourage will be just a few blocks away at the Sheraton New York Hotel. It’ll be the double whammy of all...