Free Republic

SNIP: GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury on Tuesday convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, delivering swift verdicts in a plot that was broken up by the FBI and described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by anti-government extremists. The result was a big victory for the U.S. Justice Department. A different jury just four months ago couldn’t reach unanimous decisions on Adam Fox or Barry Croft Jr. but acquitted two other men, a stunning conclusion that led to a second trial. Their arrests nearly two years ago came...

Youtube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9SOVzMV2bc&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL2A98BEEA82D96E4ESee link. Short video from 2000 campaign. Unbelievable.

The Thanksgiving Day that millions of Americans celebrate, with turkey and stuffing, is a myth. The true history was forgotten long ago, and even most of the history books have it wrong. The myth goes like this: The Pilgrims landed in 1620 and founded the Colony of New Plymouth. They had a difficult first winter, but survived with the help of the Indians. In the fall of 1621, the grateful Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving Day and invited the Indians to a big Thanksgiving-Day feast with turkey and pumpkins. There was indeed a big feast in 1621, but it was...

Did anyone else raise an eyebrow during Romney's response the following Question? Q: In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn? MR. ROMNEY: And I brought us whole binders full of — of women. I was proud of the fact that after I staffed (I heard "stuffed") my cabinet and my senior staff that the University of New York in Albany did a survey of all 50 states and concluded that mine had more women in senior leadership positions than any...

OVERVIEW Ahead of Thursday’s vice presidential debate, more voters view Joe Biden unfavorably than favorably, while opinions about Paul Ryan are more evenly divided. Biden’s image is far less positive than it was shortly before his 2008 debate with Sarah Palin; Ryan is viewed less favorably than Palin was just prior to the last vice-presidential debate. The national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 4-7 among 1,511 adults, including 1,201 registered voters, finds that 39% of voters view Biden favorably, while 51% offer an unfavorable impression of the vice president. Just more...

Every public school in the United States has aimed for the same goal over the past decade: that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. But that noble ambition, educators and experts almost universally agree, was never realistic. Now, in the District and many states, goals over the next five years tend to be lower for black, Hispanic and poor children than they are for white and Asian students, and in the District, they tend to be higher at schools in affluent areas than in poor neighborhoods. It’s a policy shift that strikes some parents as a...

EDMONTON - Darrell Krushelnicki didn’t have much time to think before he jammed down on the gas pedal and drove his Hummer into the path of a speeding car. He was in Edmonton visiting his parents for the weekend and had just dropped off his girlfriend at the Bonnie Doon Mall on Friday afternoon. As he was leaving the parking lot at 84th Avenue and 83rd Street, he spotted a silver Pontiac careening toward four children in a crosswalk. “You just had that feeling where you knew something bad was going to happen. I had to get in front of...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows Mitt Romney attracting 48% of the vote, while President Obama earns 43%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and another three percent (3%) are undecided. The president picks up support from just 35% of white voters overall. That’s eight points below the 43% of the white vote he won in 2008. Among white Democrats, 17% currently plan to vote for Romney. Just 33% now believe the president is doing a good or excellent job when it comes to the economy. That’s down from 41% at the beginning of May....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Both House Republican officials and Attorney General Eric Holder say they're willing to negotiate an end to a potential constitutional confrontation in a dispute related to the botched "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking operation. The conflict turned nastier Wednesday, when a House committee voted to hold the attorney general in contempt and President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege to avoid turning over some documents related to the operation. However, House Republican leaders said they were willing to negotiate if the administration turned over more emails and memos. And Holder said Thursday that resolving the conflict through negotiation was...

The Obama administration has proposed tighter restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions which critics believe will discourage construction of new coal power plants. Several states that rely heavily on the coal industry are challenging the new rules, but a majority of voters nationwide favor them. Most recognize, however, that the new rules will drive up energy costs. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 53% favor new environmental regulations that place stricter limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. Twenty-nine percent (29%) oppose the new regulations, and 18% are not sure about them.

Campaigning in Puerto Rico today, Rick Santorum said that Puerto Ricans needed to adopt English as their official language if they wanted to make a serious push for U.S. statehood. Santorum is in Puerto Rico making his pitch for the GOP's primary on Sunday. "Like any other state, there has to be compliance with this and any other federal law," Santorum said. "And that is that English has to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language such as Hawaii but to be a state of the United States, English has to be the principal...

Fluke has been called a slut. Not only for sleeping herself through law school, but for pimping herself off as some kind of “reproductive rights” expert. But today I received an email from someone who claims to be from Georgetown stating that Sandra Fluke really isn’t who she says she is. That is heterosexual, and that she is in fact gay. I have no idea if the email is real or fake. I don’t care if she’s gay or not. Having family members who are gay I’m not homophobic. The email headers check out and it appears legit. The writer...

See video

Voter confidence in President Obama’s handling of the economy is at its highest level in a year’s time. That’s in line with the recent upticks in overall economic confidence and in Obama’s job approval ratings as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Forty percent (40%) of Likely U.S. Voters now rate the president’s performance in the economic area as good or excellent, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up from 36% a week ago and is the highest positive finding since the first week in February 2011. Obama seldom has cracked the 40%...

(CNN) -- Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has announced new initiatives to curtail what he calls "the epidemic" of rape and sexual assaults in our armed forces. In 2010, an estimated 19,000 service members were raped or sexually assaulted by other service members. Clearly, more resources devoted to counseling for victims and training for prosecutors and judges will help. But the incidence of unpunished rapes will continue and so will the damaging effects these illegal acts have on troop morale and preparedness. This epidemic requires an overhaul of the military justice system. The military's chain of command structure keeps most...

President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level, on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934. The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. "Obama's average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors," they conclude. "The Flesch-Kincaid...

Many other forums/comment sections include a variety of rating systems (i.e. macrumors, reddit, yahoo...) I find some of these particularly helpful when navigating different posts. I often find myself scanning comments in an effort to gauge the overall sentiment of the freerepublic users on a particular story as I hold this forum in high esteem and value the opinions of those on this site. I also believe it would be nice to get feedback on our own posts, whether in the form of up-votes, thumbs, stars, etc. Anyone else out there want some sort of simple comment rating system?

Beltsville-based Penn Camera Exchange Inc. announced on its website Wednesday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company will immediately close five retail locations: Laurel, Fair Lakes, Springfield, 18th Street NW and Pikesville, Md. The future is unclear for the three remaining stores — in Rockville Federal Plaza, Tysons Corner and 18th Street NW — but those locations will be holding clearance sales. Penn Camera's bankruptcy filing was not immediately available online. Company officials did not return requests for comment. "A dramatic decline in sales performance during the preceding holiday period has precipitated this action," the company's...

It's been 30 years since gasoline took such a big bite out of the family budget. When the gifts from Grandma are unloaded and holiday travel is over, the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981. Gas averaged more than $3.50 a gallon this year, another unfortunate record. And next year isn't likely to bring relief. In the past, high gas prices in the United States have gone hand-in-hand with economic good times, making them less damaging to...

<p>Two days after ending the war in Iraq, President Obama on Monday issued a “national action plan” aimed at giving women a bigger role in resolving conflicts around the world.</p> <p>“Deadly conflicts can be more effectively avoided, and peace can be best forged and sustained when women become equal partners in all aspects of peace-building and conflict prevention,” the White House said in a 26-page document.</p>