Free Republic

The story behind the story is that “tax reform,” as we know it, is dying. During the 1980s, no major piece of legislation better symbolized bipartisan consensus than the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was regarded by both liberal and conservative experts as the best tax law since World War II. The basic idea was simple: Reduce tax rates and recover lost revenue by ending (or limiting) tax breaks. The struggle between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner over the “fiscal cliff” indicates that this beneficial consensus has collapsed. Just the opposite is occurring. ... many politicians support...

The Board of Directors of The Washington Post Company (WPO) today announced ... an accelerated cash dividend ... This accelerated dividend is intended by the Board to be in lieu of regular quarterly dividends that the Company otherwise would have declared and paid in calendar year 2013

Which presidential candidate has had the better of the debate about the economy? Mitt Romney - 49% Barack Obama - 50% Other - 1% Total Votes: 8,859

Southern California soon will begin sending sewage sludge into western Kings County -- up to 500,000 tons a year to a piece of farmland the size of Clovis. It's the San Joaquin Valley's newest mega-composting project, mixing treated human waste from 5.7 million people and woody debris from area farming. The compost will be used as soil nutrient on scrubby land at Westlake Farms to help grow cotton, wheat, pomegranates, pistachios and other crops. But make no mistake about this enterprise. The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County -- serving 78 cities, including Long Beach and Beverly Hills -- bought...

Composting. Learn the basics, benefits, components, no-no's, and six ways to get started...

<p>Federal officials say the National Christmas Tree planted near the White House a year ago has died and is being removed.</p> <p>The National Park Service says the Colorado blue spruce died of "transplant shock." It came from a tree farm in New Jersey last year and was planted on the Ellipse just south of the White House in March 2011.</p>

As the 40th anniversary of Watergate impends, we are to be bathed again in the great myth and morality play about the finest hour in all of American journalism. The myth? That two heroic young reporters at The Washington Post, guided by a secret source, a man of conscience they dubbed "Deep Throat," cracked the case and broke the scandal wide open, where the FBI, U.S. prosecutors and more experienced journalists floundered and failed. Through their tireless investigative reporting, they compelled the agencies of government to treat Watergate as the unprecedented constitutional crisis it was. No Pulitzer Prize was ever...

Many have truly lost interest in the Republican primary and its "candidates." None appear fully acceptable, all have major faults and excess baggage that could easily cause them to lose to an absolutely unre-electable sitting president. While polls are often flawed and many are absolutely biased, I have seen a consistent trend that any particular GOP candidate VS Obama consistently loses, given a choice between "Any Republican" and Obama, the Republican wins handily. What this means is that the majority of voters, about 75% in the GOP in fact, are totally unhappy with the choices offered. It is my considered...

The Washington Post's attempt to "macaca" Rick Perry generated a racialist response from a surprising source. Stephanie McCrummen's ham-handed effort to smear the Texas Governor relied on hearsay, anonymous cloudy recollections of events from nearly 30 years ago and interviews with black Texas residents recalling how they were treated in the Jim Crow 1950's. Ms. McCrummen is a reporter based in Nairobi: it would seem the Post could bring in someone based in Texas for this research, but perhaps the editors weren't looking for someone with local knowledge so much as someone willing to grind the ax against Governor Perry....

Utah compost company aims to make the most out of America's vast supply of leftovers. In a Salt Lake City warehouse, tall mounds of rotten vegetables, coffee grounds, and sawdust are steaming at 160 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not a desert dump yard, just the facilities of EcoScraps, an innovative organic compost company started by three Brigham Young University classmates who dropped out of school to launch their business. With 2011 revenues expected to approach $1.5 million, their risk seems to be paying off. EcoScraps' compost mix, sold by the bag in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado stores, is free of the...

That's the hilarious (and accurate) headline on a story today from MSNBC, of all places. And it's true. For those who don't remember: Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the "composted" body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk. A self-proclaimed environmental activist, Einhorn made a name for himself among ecological groups during the 1960s and '70s by taking on the role of a tie-dye-wearing ecological guru and Philadelphia's head hippie. With his long beard and gap-toothed...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington Post Co. says its fourth-quarter net income declined 3 percent, as revenue was flat. The company said Wednesday that net income totaled $79 million, or $9.42 per share. That's down from $81.7 million, or $8.71 per share, in the same period a year earlier. The company had more shares outstanding in the quarter a year ago, increasing per-share results.

Republican Rep. Dan Lungren is using the power of his new leadership post to throw out a composting initiative started under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's watch. Lungren, named chairman of the Committee on House Administration after Republicans gained control of the House last November, announced this week that he has asked the House Chief Administrative Officer to halt the waste disposal program, citing increased costs and unrealized energy savings. The program, part of the past Democratic leadership's "Green the Capitol" push, put compostable trays and utensils in House dining facilities in an effort to reduce landfill-bound waste. But the...

On a scale of forgetting your pencil at home to forgetting your 50th wedding anniversary, this ranks somewhere around forgetting your lunchbox. But it’s still funny. Last week, a Washington Post columnist started a Twitter hoax. This week, a Washington Post columnist fell for one. Jonathan Capehart, an editorial writer and columnist, took "@RepJackKimble (R-Calif.)" to task Monday for tweeting that "Bush fought 2 wars without costing taxpayers a dime." Capehart responded in a blog post that President Bush advocated for "two giant tax cuts that weren't paid for and two big wars that were largely kept off the main...

Apocalyptic views hinder constructive political debateBy Robert McCartney Sunday, August 29, 2010 **SNIP** Instead, these people think our morals have sunk so low and our political leaders have become so unresponsive that the rule of law is breaking down in America. In interviews with members of the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, I found that many shared such an apocalyptic view of a country on the wrong track. But when pressed for evidence of such severe deterioration, they didn't offer very compelling examples. Basically, the "tea party" thinks the moderately liberal social agenda pushed by the Obama administration is just...

This morning I received this memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.In it, the ODNI advises its “industry partners,” that is those corporations and individuals who do work to assist the security of the country, that the Washington Post is planning on outing them. Early next week, the Washington Post is expected to publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and contractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work. The website is expected to enable users to see the relationships between the federal government and its contractors, describe the type of...

A freezer conked out and a lot of deer inside is on the cusp of going bad.

NaturalNews) If someone were to begin marketing toxic sewer sludge as "high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic" compost, he or she would likely be considered a crook and possibly sued for false advertising. Unfortunately, this is what the city of San Francisco and Synagro, "the largest recycler of organic residuals in the United States," have begun doing to the people of San Francisco. Most waste treatment facilities across the U.S. contract treatment and disposal responsibilities to Synagro. Because it is no longer permissible to dump toxic sewage directly in the ocean, most of it ends up being reused on farm fields as "fertilizer."...

He'll even load it for you.

Owner of Denver Post, Salt Lake Tribune plans prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for the MediaNews Group family of newspapers that includes The Denver Post, said Friday that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it would file a "prepackaged" plan already approved by lenders, which should allow it to emerge from bankruptcy more quickly. Under the plan, company debt would fall from about $930 million to $165 million. Senior lenders would swap debt for stock. Earlier this week, Morris Publishing Group, owner of 13 daily newspapers including the...