Free Republic

Via Joel Gehrke, a scene from the intramural debate over the debt ceiling between Maverick McCain and the Paul/Lee/Cruz tea-party coalition. If you read Erika’s post last night, you already know the background. The tea partiers are threatening to block the Senate’s budget from being sent to the House for a conference committee unless Reid assures them that whatever emerges won’t raise the debt ceiling. (Or, if it does, that 60 votes will be required for passage rather than the simple majority typically required for budget bills.) Reid won’t budge on that — yet. McCain, who’s been busy lately recouping...

Some prominent health insurers, including industry giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., are not participating in California's new state-run health insurance market, possibly limiting the number of choices for millions of consumers. UnitedHealth, the nation's largest private insurer, Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. are sitting out the first year of Covered California, the state's insurance exchange and a key testing ground nationally for a massive coverage expansion under the federal healthcare law.

The Boy Scouts of America's National Council has voted to ease a long-standing ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted as Scouts. Of the local Scout leaders voting at their annual meeting in Texas, more than 60 percent supported the proposal. Under the proposal drafted by the Scouts' governing board, gay adults will remain barred from serving as Scout leaders. The outcome is unlikely to end a bitter debate over the Scouts' membership policy. Some conservative churches that sponsor Scout units wanted to continue excluding gay youths, in some cases threatening to defect if the ban were lifted....

MILWAUKEE – Deidri Hernandez’s seven-year-old son won’t be in school tomorrow, after officials at Tippecanoe School for the Arts and Humanities confirmed they’re still holding “Switch It Up Day” – a time for students to come dressed as members of the opposite sex. Hernandez tells EAGnews the day was originally billed as “Gender Bender Day,” but Tippecanoe officials made the name change after she called Principal Jeffrey Krupar to complain. The Milwaukee mother was not impressed. “I didn’t have a problem with the title. I had a problem with the activity taking place,” Hernandez says. She says it’s “ridiculous” and...

Tatum Raetz graduated from kindergarten this week, just three days after her police officer father was killed while investigating a drunk driving case. But the 5-year-old girl definitely felt her father’s presence at her ceremony, thanks to nearly 300 uniformed officers standing in his place at her Phoenix elementary school.

An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts. Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.

Europe's largest economy, Germany, which has been criticized for not doing enough to help struggling euro zone countries, has topped a poll as the world's most popular country. The survey, carried out for the BBC, polled 26,000 people in 25 countries and asked them to rate 16 countries and the European Union as a whole on whether their influence on the world was mainly positive or negative. Germany came out on top, with 59 percent of survey participants giving it a positive rating. The country moved up three percentage points from its 2012 position. It displaced Japan, which saw its...

This morning on a radio show, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner admitted that more lewd photos could come out: “It is what it is,” Weiner told the radio host in his first live interview since announcing his mayoral bid. “People may decide they want to come forward and say, here’s another email that I got or another photo. I’m certainly not going to do that. So people may hear things that are true, they may hear things that are not true, but I’m going to try to keep being focused on issues that are important to New York...

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met in the Oval Office on Tuesday with three people who are in the country in violation of U.S. immigration laws but who have received “deferred action” allowing them to stay in the country under the terms of a "memorandum" issued unilaterally last year by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. While conceding that she had no legal authority to change the "immigration status" of illegal aliens or provide them with a "pathway to citizenship," Napolitano instructed the top officials at Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration...

It’s almost a cliché. First, someone talking about blacks makes reference to fried chicken, watermelon, monkeys or dogs—or even uses the indefensible N-word. Then, along with the inevitable apology, comes the kicker: I’m not racist. The latest denial is from golfer Sergio Garcia. Asked a joking question about having dinner with his adversary Tiger Woods, Garcia said: “We will serve fried chicken.” He later apologized for what he called a “silly remark,” then added, “but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner.” … “I think it’s human nature that if you’re a racist, you don’t want...

In January, Rush Limbaugh warned that there was “an effort under way to normalize pedophilia,” and was ridiculed by liberals (including CNN’s Soledad O’Brien) for saying so. But now liberals have joined a crusade that, if successful, would effectively legalize sex with 14-year-olds in Florida. The case involves Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt, an 18-year-old in Sebastian, Florida, who was arrested in February after admitting that she had a lesbian affair with a 14-year high-school freshman. (Click here to read the affidavit in Hunt’s arrest.) It is a felony in Florida to have sex with 14-year-olds. Hunt was expelled from Sebastian High...

Inquiring minds with extra time on their hands this morning are plodding through the Full Transcript of Bernanke's Testimony To Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress looking for the usual collection of half-truths, distortions, and outright lies it usually contains. Here are some point-by-point statements by Bernanke with my comments immediately following each set of statements. Bernanke: Conditions in the job market have shown some improvement recently. The unemployment rate, at 7.5 percent in April, has declined more than 1/2 percentage point since last summer. Moreover, gains in total nonfarm payroll employment have averaged more than 200,000 jobs per month over...

VCU Holds Second Lavender Graduation Cassie Williams Jones University Public Affairs (804) 828-7028 cwjones@vcu.edu 5/2/2013 Approximately 40 graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex seniors participated in the second VCU Lavender Graduation on April 26. Lavender Graduation is a special graduation ceremony that honors the achievements of graduating gender and sexual minority students on campus. Participants received a rainbow cord to wear with their academic regalia at the university’s official commencement activities on May 11. “It was such a delight to be part of the second annual Lavender Graduation planning group and to see the room full of people...

Conservative Republicans said Wednesday that they will demand that Congress produce a budget that balances in 10 years in exchange for agreeing to raise the federal debt limit, and that House Speaker John A. Boehner promised as much during a GOP retreat this year. ... The next debt fight is looming later this year. If enough Republicans back the conservatives‘ plan, it could reprise the 2011 showdown that ran to the brink and led to the downgrading of U.S. debt by one of the major credit rating agencies.

TALLADEGA COUNTY — A man in Talladega received a rude awakening after breaking into his neighbor’s home in the 100 block of Dusty Trail Lane early Thursday morning between 4-4:30 a.m. Jimmy Lee Garrett, a 48-year-old male residing at 116 Dusty Trail Lane, was arrested and charged for second-degree burglary, but not before a catching a bullet in the foot for his troubles. According to Talladega County Sheriff Jimmy Kilgore, a female resident told investigators she woke up and saw Garrett in her kitchen. At that point, she yelled for her husband, who began chasing Garrett throughout their home while...

President Obama was heckled during his national security speech today: "Why don't you sit down," the president told the heckler. "You should let me finish my sentence. Code Pink's Medea Benjamin. video, c/o Drudge

ACTUAL TITLE: 911 Dispatcher Tells Woman About To Be Sexually Assaulted There Are No Cops To Help Her Due To Budget Cuts JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Ore. (CBS Seattle) — An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts. Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only...

Floridians have negative feelings about undocumented immigrants, but an overwhelming majority favor policy that would allow such immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship, a new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences survey suggests... Seventy-three percent of survey respondents said they believe undocumented immigrants are a burden on the economy more than an asset, and 58 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “undocumented immigrants reduce the number of good jobs for Americans.” ...85 percent said the government should either allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S. and eventually become citizens or require them to leave and...

Dozens of protesters clashed with police in Woolwich, south London on Wednesday night following the brutal killing of a London man in broad daylight by Muslim extremists. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)

The massive circular structure appears to be an archaeologist's dream: a recently discovered antiquity that could reveal secrets of ancient life in the Middle East and is just waiting to be excavated. It's thousands of years old -- a conical, manmade behemoth weighing hundreds of tons, practically begging to be explored. The problem is -- it's at the bottom of the biblical Sea of Galilee. For now, at least, Israeli researchers are left stranded on dry land, wondering what finds lurk below. The monumental structure, made of boulders and stones with a diameter of 230 feet, emerged from a routine...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/23/woolwich-latest-developments-live

Col. Allen West on the Melody Burns Show at 4:05 pm Eastern.

KMOV (Channel 4) fired Larry Conners after a social-media controversy, prompting St. Louis' longest-tenured anchorman to defend his claim that IRS "pressure" followed his 2012 interview of President Barack Obama. Freed from a KMOV gag-order Wednesday, Conners said his statements on Facebook were simply questions about the possibility of an Internal Revenue Service vendetta in the wake of national stories about the agency. "I never said that's what happened, and I'm still not saying it," Conners said. "I'm only asking that question." Conners also said a televised statement he made about the situation last week — which he conceded damaged...

<p>Short AP articles must be excerpted to 50% at all times.</p>

“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life,” counseled Faber College’s Dean Wormer in “Animal House.” For the collegiate class of 2013 — until next year the most indebted ever — add “in hock” to that immortal list. Compared with their parents, current graduates are paying four times more in inflation-adjusted terms for their diplomas while suffering substantially inferior job and income prospects. Like “Animal House’s” witless frat brothers, those who believe college is a last hurrah before plunging into adult reality must Think Again. For generations, Americans practiced what Benjamin Franklin preached — “An investment in...

Self-assembling nanoparticles could make updating seasonal vaccines easier. Under the microscope, they look like simple jacks, with eight spikes jutting out of a central ball. But these protein nanoparticles are science's latest weapon against influenza: a new breed of flu vaccine that provides better and broader protection than commercially available ones — at least in animal tests. Current flu vaccines use inactivated whole viruses and must be regularly remade to target the strains most likely to cause illness in the coming year. But the new nanoparticles would require fewer updates because they induce the production of antibodies that neutralize a...

Many disillusioned Egyptians say things are worse than ever. Thugs often run the streets, crime rates have skyrocketed, and police feel they're outgunned faced with the flood of weapons filling Cairo's streets. Making matters worse, everything from utilities to gasoline is both more expensive and more difficult to acquire than it was before the Muslim Brotherhood.

It’s not a stretch to suggest that Americans are over medicated. In 2011 doctors across the nation wrote an astounding four billion medical prescriptions, amounting to an average of 13 prescriptions for every man, woman and child in the United States. In the next few weeks the American Psychiatric Associations is releasing their updated fifth version their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5); the so-called ‘bible’ of psychiatric diagnoses. The new manual promises to take mental illness and the use of prescription drugs to a whole new level. You may not be considered “crazy” or “mentally ill” today,...

Initially, FBI officials said Todashev, 27, became violent and lunged at an agent with a knife while he was being questioned about Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple murder in the Boston suburb of Waltham. The agent, acting on an "imminent threat," then shot Todashev, they said. However, later in the day, some of those officials had backed off that preliminary account, and it's no longer clear what happened in the moments before the fatal shooting, The Associated Press reported. Read more: http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/22403812/fbi-shooting-orlando-moments-before-fatal-shooting-of-ibragim-todashev-still-unclear#ixzz2U8eKIMVd

<p>VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) -- The head of the European golf tour apologized for using the term "colored" during a live television interview Thursday in which he was reacting to the spat between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia.</p> <p>European Tour CEO George O'Grady said that "most of Sergio's friends are colored athletes in the United States."</p>

That's the logical question to ask after an avalanche of official denials of knowledge and responsibility from the IRS, Department of Justice, and the White House. "I don't know" seems to be the new mantra of executives at every level once questioned about wrongdoing and abuse. The editors of the Wall Street Journal wonder not where the buck stops, but if it even exists anywhere in the federal government: There’s a certain infantilization of the federal government here that should be especially alarming to taxpayers who have ever crossed paths with the IRS. The agency has the power to make...

Anothny Weiner, NYC's muppet former congressman, and as we reported yesterday, the man who following his disgraceful fall from grace announced his mayoral campaign on YouTube, continues to be the gift that keeps on giving... if mostly naked pictures of his anatomy to various women. As the WaPo reports, "Former congressman and newly announced New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D) said in an interview Thursday morning with WNYC-FM that there could be women coming forward with more e-mails or photos from the inappropriate digital conversations that led to his resignation in 2011." In other words, where there was one...

'THE soldier butchered in broad daylight by Muslim fanatics yesterday has been named by sources as (Drummer) Lee Rigby. Lee, 25, is a dad to a young son called Jack and served with 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. He is believed to have served in Afghanistan. And sources say he is separated from his wife. His family were told the tragic news in the early hours last night. Met police officials are refusing to confirm the name until an autopsy has been completed - planned for this afternoon.'

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted the Senate on Tuesday, saying that they were using procedural tricks in order to raise the debt ceiling. In a joint statement with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Cruz said that he would have no objection to sending the budget to conference if Democrats agreed to not use it as a back-door tool to raise taxes or the debt ceiling. They have not made such an agreement, so he exposed them. “The issue before this body is the debt ceiling and whether the Senate will be able to raise the debt...

After 2 months of snow delays I recently completed the vehicle combat training class I posted inquiries about last November.http://forum.opencarry.org/forums/sh...-fire-training The class was a solo student course lead by Firearms Iinstructor and assisted (ammo bitched) by an experienced IDPA\Highpower competitor. The course curriculum was very in depth and complete. Ranging from at your door assaults, engagement ranges and choices, vehicles as cover, vehicles as weapons, point shooting, moving targets, moving shooter, moving vehicles, window shooting, cross passenger compartment engagement, vehicle egress, vehicle hard points, glass deflection, under vehicle shooting, equipment tricks, and hand to hand with pistol attacks. We covered...

There is a gender gap for mental illness, with females being up to 40 percent more likely to develop some type of mental health condition than their male counterparts.

After longtime Chavismo-strongman Hugo Chavez’s death earlier this year, his lieutenant Nicolas Maduro “won� the snap election for a replacement president — except that the opposition party headed by challenger Henry Capriles maintains that the election results were fraudulent and is refusing to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president without a thorough audit of the whole thing. The Venezuelan Supreme Court tried to nip that idea in the bud (because really, what good is a corrupted and tyrannical power structure without rule-of-law-defying loyalty?), but the opposition isn’t giving up and Venezuelan politics of late have not been going at all...

DENVER (AP) -- In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill. The Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts chain argues that businesses - not just the currently exempted religious groups - should be allowed to seek exception from that part of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs. "They ought to be able - just like a church, just like a charity - to...

Initial unemployment claims dropped back to a level indicating moderate job growth last week after a spike the previous week raised alarms about the labor market recovery. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time stood at 340,000 for the week ending Saturday, falling from a revised 363,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists had expected the closely watched jobless claims figure to drop last week to 345,0000. Claims for the week ending May 11, which were revised up from 360,000, had the biggest one-week jump since last fall and were the most...

As I type my thoughts for this coming Memorial Day, it is my prayer that are worthy of surviving the flurry of other current events and will have an impact on those who read them and perhaps, will be referred to on other occasions and perhaps help drive the remembrance on future Memorial Days. I always experience a bit of dread as I ponder how to say something of relevance that goes beyond the standard “honoring those who gave all for our freedom” which gets circulated by so many writers while so many Americans head to the beach or prepare...

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 23, 2013 (National Right to Life News) - Legalized abortion is widely touted as beneficial to women, but a wealth of medical and psychological evidence suggests otherwise, according to a new analysis of decades of research. The analysis was released today at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Global Outreach (MCCL GO) and National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund (NRLC), an NGO based in Washington, D.C. Jeanne E. Head, R.N., Patrick Buckley and Scott Fischbach, who are in Geneva introducing the analysis, are calling for a renewed emphasis on...

George Washington University Professors: Obama on Mt. Rushmore – Eventually Posted By Katherine Rodriguez - George Washington University On May 23, 2013 @ 2:04 am In Fix Exclusives,Image Slider | No Comments A handful of George Washington University political and history professors largely support the idea of adding President Barack Obama’s face to Mount Rushmore – just not quite yet. According to a survey conducted by The College Fix, three out of the 10 George Washington University history and political science professors questioned via email replied it’s simply too soon for Obama’s likeness to be immortalized on Mount Rushmore National...

Yesterday I read an interesting article in Newsweek about the connection between tornadoes and climate change. Newsweek’s story explained how top climate scientists were concerned about several ominous and fundamental changes occurring in Earth’s weather patterns. Evidence that Earth’s climate was changing in the wrong direction, the article said, included a shorter growing season in England, higher average temperatures at the equator and an increase in tornadoes like the monster than killed at least 24 people in Tornado Alley this week. “Last April,” wrote Newsweek, “in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300...

Yes, climate change is happening. But it's hard to say that the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma -- or any given tornado, for that matter -- was influenced by climate change. Scientific research has not made a clear connection between tornadoes and climate change, said J. Marshall Shepherd, climate change expert and professor at the University of Georgia. There is currently a much better understanding of how climate change increases the risks of droughts, heat waves and precipitation, he said. There are also indications that changing patterns may influence the intensity of hurricanes. But as far as tornadoes: There's...

Mary Katharine linked this yesterday in her post on Rep. Stephen Lynch’s unmistakable anger over the corruption at the IRS, but it’s worth a long look on its own, too. National Review’s David French, an adoptive father himself (as am I), researched a few other IRS priorities over the past few years other than targeting conservatives for extra scrutiny and harassment. The agency took very clear aim at people claiming the adoption tax credit, auditing a jaw-dropping 69% of all such filers: As we get word that the IRS has harassed a number of pro-life groups, including at least one...

[SNIP] Here are top line numbers from the Washington Post poll that should worry Mr. Obama and his team: Q: Changing topics, in general do you think the federal government is doing more to (protect) the rights of average Americans or more to (threaten) the rights of average Americans? 54% - threaten. 38% - protect. The Washington Post didn't ask "threaten" respondents if they connect their fears to the president. With more to come from the IRS scandal -- and with links to the White House probable -- the majority feeling threatened by government will grow. Q: Republicans in Congress...

If Richard Nixon were alive today, he would likely be fielding midnight phone calls from Barack Obama. Not since Richard Nixon was driven from office by the Watergate scandal four decades ago, has the American public been privy to such an unfolding spectacle of scandal and corruption in a presidential administration. From “Operation Fast and Furious,” to the Benghazi debacle and cover-up, to the IRS harassment of conservative organizations, to the Department of Justice campaign against the Associated Press, and now reports the Department has used its power to intimidate FOX News reporters -- the hits just keep on coming....

Americans For Fair Taxation® (AFFT), outraged by the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) continued political abuse and intimidation of citizens and organizations, is calling on Congress to immediately enact HR 25 / S 122, the FairTax® Act of 2013 and phase out the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). "No person or group is safe from IRS targeting; everyone is a bull's eye," said AFFT spokesperson Cynthia T. Canevaro. She added, "The agency, with over 90,000 employees and an annual budget in excess of $12 billion, has historically been the ultimate tool of extreme political manipulation by politicians of both major parties. That's...

How does President Barack Obama, a man of such keen intelligence, with such promise to "change" America, find himself in so much serious trouble? From the IRS targeting conservatives to the continued confusion over what happened at Benghazi to provoking a battle with The Associated Press by subpoenaing phone records that could involve as many as 100 reporters, what went wrong? The answer is simple: arrogance, aided and abetted by a compliant, adoring "news" media. CNN's Roland Martin urged the president to "go gangsta" on conservatives who wouldn't confirm his political appointments. Supporters like MSNBC's the Rev. Al Sharpton publicly...

Scores of supporters of the English Defence League threw bottles at police and chanted anti-Muslim slogans in Woolwich hours after the murder of one man and the shooting of his two suspected assailants. About 100 men, including some wearing balaclavas printed with "EDL", engaged in running battles with police for less than an hour. A police commander said officers cited section 60 of the Public Order Act, which allowed them to stop and search individuals within a specific area without evidence of a crime being committed. EDL leader Tommy Robinson said: "They're chopping our soldiers' heads off. This is Islam....