Free Republic

Everyone who isn't an Obamabot (Paul Krugman) or above the age of 5 knows that the current "official" unemployment rate of 5.9% is bogus. The real number that counts is the labor participation rate which has been shrinking for more than 5 years.Why is the labor force participation rate important? Ken Braun of MLive has very clear explanation: The U.S. “civilian noninstitutional population” - the total count of civilian adults - grew by 217,000 in September, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor. Those new entrants represent immigrants, young people coming of age, military personnel...

THINK back to your first childhood crush. Maybe it was a classmate or a friend next door. Most likely, through school and into adulthood, your affections continued to focus on others in your approximate age group. But imagine if they did not. By some estimates, 1 percent of the male population continues, long after puberty, to find themselves attracted to prepubescent children. These people are living with pedophilia, a sexual attraction to prepubescents that often constitutes a mental illness. Unfortunately, our laws are failing them and, consequently, ignoring opportunities to prevent child abuse. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental...

Hey remember when crazy right wingers predicted that gay marriage would lead to legalizing polygamy? Well that happened. Also they predicted that the next step would be to seek the same civil rights protections for pedophiles. And that’s happening in no less a forum than the New York Times which couldn’t find any terrorists to slot into its op-ed page and went with pedophilia instead.How can you possibly make child rape sympathetic? Liberals always find a way. Think back to your first childhood crush. Maybe it was a classmate or a friend next door. Most likely, through school and into...

The job market has made a comeback over the past year, but the American labor force hasn't, and the prospects don't look good. Work seems to be on the wane in the U.S., with worrisome consequences for economic growth. While the unemployment rate slipped to 6.1% in June -- its lowest level in six years -- the percentage of adult American workers who are actually in the workforce is at its lowest level in 36 years, with no rebound in sight. ... WHEN IT COMES TO the millions of people receiving Social Security disability income, however, it is fairly certain...

St. Paul Public Schools workers are filing more injury reports and claims under the workers' compensation program. And district officials are not entirely sure why. Injury reports were up 50 percent in 2013 compared with four years ago, and the number of claims seeking payment for medical expenses or lost wages are up almost 30 percent, all while district employment stayed stable. Officials say they are watching how much the district is paying out more closely than the number of reports and claims. Those amounts have not risen in the past two years -- though they'll likely go up as...

Obesity may be considered a disability if it affects how a person does their job and so could fall under EU rules banning discrimination in the workplace, the EU’s top court said Thursday (17 July) in an opinion set to be closely studied by employers. "Morbid obesity may come within the meaning of ‘disability’ if it is of such a degree as to hinder full participation in professional life on an equal footing with other employees,” said advocate general Niilo Jaaskinen. The case arrived at the European Court of Justice after Karsten Kaltoft, a child-minder Denmark, claimed he unfairly lost...

The total number of Americans now on the Social Security Disability Insurance program topped 11 million in May, a record high and an increase of 18% since January 2009, according to new data from the Social Security administration, furthering a trend that will have severe economic and budget consequences. More than 5.2 million workers have enrolled in the program since President Obama took office, and enrollment is climbing faster under Obama than at any time in the program's history. An average 81,000 workers joined the Social Security Disability Program each month during Obama's years. Under President Bush, by contrast, monthly...

For years, the Social Security Administration has warned lawmakers that unless they do something soon, the entitlement program for disabled workers will run out of cash by 2016. Still, as the program’s funds dry up and its insolvency hovers less than two years away, Congress remains quiet on the issue.

Oakland officials are investigating why a former police officer is collecting $52,488 a year in medical disability benefits from the city even though he has been working as an FBI agent in Boston. The unusual case of FBI Special Agent Aaron McFarlane, 41, came to the attention of Oakland officials after the agent was identified last week as the federal officer who shot and killed a key figure last year in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. The disability benefit that McFarlane is collecting under the California Public Employees' Retirement System is awarded when a worker is unable to perform the...

The failures of the Veterans Affairs Department are a moral abomination: They leave soldiers wounded at war to wait in long lines for the payments they need to fund their care. And VA failures are under new scrutiny amid reports of a string of preventable deaths among veterans and a growing political controversy around them—and many in Congress are pointing a finger in the White House's direction.

The most efficient way to destroy a society is to fragment it and turn the pieces against each other. Language plays a big part in getting America out of the way so that a liberal utopia can be constructed in its place. Here is one way our rulers are using our money to encourage foreign colonists not to learn English: The inability to speak English is now considered a determining factor to receive federal disability benefits. Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) sent a letter obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon to Acting Commissioner of...

The Maine People's Alliance, a progressive group, has come under fire for a leaflet aimed at Maine State Rep. Dale Crafts (R-Lisbon Falls). The leaflet resembles a prescription form, and "diagnosed" Crafts as having "no heart" and "no spine" as he "failed to stand up to Gov. LePage." Crafts is confined to a wheelchair following a spinal injury sustained in a motorcycle accident 26 years ago. Democrats in the state were quick to condemn the language in the leaflet and to distance themselves from the Maine People's Alliance. “We’ve only been out of the session two days. And it’s not...

No English? No problem! A little known Social Security policy considers a person’s ability to learn English when determining disability eligibility. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) sent a letter to Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin last week to express concerns about a disability policy that may fast-track Americans who can’t speak English. The policy allows people to qualify for benefits more quickly if “they are incapable of communicating in English.” […] Disability applications have gone up 230 percent in the last decade, according to a report. …

Whenever you hear our dear politicians in Washington DC say there’s nothing more to cut or that they’re just like us, let me give you a friendly reminder. As Breitbart reported after his jail sentencing, convicted ex-congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) receives $8,700 per month in government disability pay, as well as a partial federal pension of $45,000. That generous $8,700 in disability comes thanks to Jackson’s sudden development of a “mood disorder” as the federal government began looking to indict him. Jackson, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, had no history of mental illness during his prior...

Full Title: Harrington Discusses Story on Non-English Speakers Getting Fast-Tracked for Disability Approval Washington Free Beacon reporter Elizabeth Harrington appeared on Fox and Friends Saturday to discuss her story on non-English speakers being fast-tracked for federal disability approval. Harrington reported: Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) sent a letter obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon to Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin on Thursday, raising concerns regarding revelations that individuals who cannot speak English are fast-tracked for disability approval. “I write to express my concerns about the expanding number of individuals now...

A former U.S. Postal Service employee in Anchorage was arraigned Friday on charges he accepted at least $334,000 in disability and worker's comp payments while he spent his summers fishing. The U.S. attorney's office says in a Friday release that 56-year-old Amacio Zamora Agcaoili Jr. was indicted by a federal grand jury on 18 counts, including theft of government funds. Assistant U.S. Attorney Yvonne Lamoureux also claims Agcaoli lied about not working when he was paid for preparing tax returns and immigration paperwork. Authorities also claim he failed to tell the Social Security Administration about his worker's comp payments, to...

The mainstream media are in full cry for the U.S. Senate to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Watch out. When the United Nations starts talking about rights, the truth about what it’s really up to is often carefully concealed. There are always plenty of people in Washington happy to go along with these charades, but the supporters of the CRPD are taking willful blindness to new heights. Last December, Senator Bob Corker, the Republican leader on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced that he was unable to support CRPD because it threatens U.S....

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. workforce will soon have to answer a personal question from the boss: Are you disabled? U.S. regulations going into effect next week require for the first time that federal contractors—a group that includes Boeing Co., Dell Inc. and AT&T Inc., T among some 40,000 others—ask their employees if they have a disability. Those that don't employ a minimum of 7% disabled workers, or can't prove they are taking steps to achieve that goal, could face penalties and, in the most extreme cases, the loss of their contracts, according to a government official. The target...

Recent revelations about the abuse of disabled workers has me thinking: Do we fear God? I’ll explain. Last May, an Iowa jury awarded $240 million—later reduced to $6 million—to 32 mentally-disabled men who, over the course of three decades, were systematically cheated, exploited and abused by their employer. disabled2It’s a sad reminder of how vulnerable those with disabilities are and why any church worthy of the name should be at the forefront in protecting them. The story is, as the New York Times put it, “Dickensian” in its details. Over three decades, hundreds of intellectually-disabled men were shipped from Texas...

If you want to see where government-run healthcare gets you, look no further than what the VA is doing to Airman Brian Kolfage after he spoke out against Obama. Our veterans who sustained injuries in combat deserve the best treatment we can give them, but the VA just sent Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage a bill for $4,000. Here’s the letter he just received from the VA: Kolfage is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration and wants to know why his records were pulled in the first place. He’s written about the whole story on his Facebook page (emphasis...