Free Republic

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- When this sun-drenched exurb east of Los Angeles filed for bankruptcy protection in August, the city attorney suggested fraudulent accounting was the root of the problem. The mayor blamed a dysfunctional city council and greedy police and fire unions. The unions blamed the mayor. Even now, there is little agreement on how the city got into this crisis or how it can extricate itself. "It's total political chaos," said John Husing, a former San Bernardino resident and regional economist. "There is no solution. They'll never fix anything."

A Key West resident who police say was distraught over the presidential election results and worried about his business has apparently killed himself. Police say they found Henry Hamilton’s body in his bedroom Nov. 8, along with a living will with handwritten words “Do not revive! (expletive) Obama!” Two empty prescription empty pill bottles were in the dining room. …

The immigrant community in the Phoenix area is preparing to live another four years with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who over the past few years has intensified his fight against undocumented migrants. Arpaio, 80, was reelected Tuesday to a sixth consecutive term with 53 percent of the votes. The controversial Republican sheriff received another mandate despite several pending federal lawsuits accusing his office of engaging in racial profiling against Hispanics. "Unfortunately, we still have part of (state immigration law) SB 1070 in force in Arizona, which is the 'show me your papers' provision, and now we're going to continue...

The First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is not an elected official. The title doesn't come with a paycheck. Michelle Obama, however, has turned it into an exercise in imperial excess, spending taxpayers' dollars as though the Treasury were her cookie jar. There was an old radio spot that ran in the South, when I lived there some 20 years ago. The commentary always started with, “Ya know what makes me sick?” That’s probably not a great way to grab a breakfast-time audience, but ya know, I’m almost there with the FLOTUS. I am simply tired of the First...

Governor Sarah Palin posed the question “Who is running our country?” in her latest Facebook note: Who is running our country? We’ve got a CIA Director sharing security info with his mistress using an unsecure gmail account. We’ve got the delusional Susan Rice blaming the death of an ambassador on a Youtube video. We’ve got Iran firing on one of our drones a week before the election. We’ve got the White House either ignorant of or covering up all of this. Who is minding the store? Everywhere we look we see the rank incompetence or corruption of the people who...

The president is scheduled to do his first press conference in months on Wednesday, at 1:30 p.m. EST in the East Room.

In 2008, long before stress tests and Dodd-Frank, then-Senator Barack Obama excelled in the rich enclaves where much of New York’s financial class lives. Obama made staggering gains among one-percenters in the wealthiest areas of western Connecticut, where as many as one-quarter of adult males work in the financial sector. In New Canaan, where Brian Williams owns a home and the median income exceeds $175,000, Obama lost by just 6 points after Kerry lost by 22 points four years earlier. Nearby Greenwich, where you can find Mel Gibson, Regis, and Madoff's kids, voted for Obama by 8 points. ..................................................... The...

The federal government is tightening its control over the 50 states and the lives of every American. The U.S. Constitution, however, says states are supposed to be equal partners with the federal government. State sovereignty — allowing each state to control its own affairs — is the cornerstone of that equal partnership and critical to protecting Americans' freedom. Below are 10 ways local policymakers and citizens can restore that balance of power and do what's best for the people of your state. (Click the infographic for larger, 8½x11" PDF version.)Read Federalism DIY: 10 Ways for States to Check and Balance Washington...

Most likely ending speculation Eric Holder started last week when he announced he may not stay on for a second term, the New York Post reported today that the attorney general will remain on the job at the request of the president. Gun Rights Examiner raised troubling concerns that the floated resignation could remove Holder as a subject for further investigation into Fast and Furious gunwalking, and also raised the alarm that potential replacements being discussed in the press must be vetted with the gun issue being a non-negotiable litmus test. Holder’s reported decision not to resign now means he...

President Obama is taking a tough opening stance in talks over deficit reduction, pushing Republicans to accept a plan that calls for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over the next ten years, according to reports. The figure is double the $800 billion last discussed by the White House and House Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) during their 2011 negotiations on raising the debt-ceiling limit. The president’s plan is based on his most recent budget proposal, which sought the $1.6 in new revenues by targeting the wealthy and corporations. The president and congressional lawmakers are set to meet at the White House...

John Boehner has been willing to throw his conference under the bus repeatedly. We know from the Bob Woodward book that he was willing to raise taxes. We know he cut a deal with Barack Obama without consulting the rest of his conference. We know it blew up in his face. We know he now doesn’t even want to fight Obamacare, calling it the “law of the land.” We know he only walked back that statement because of the outrage that ensued. We know he wants to start putting moderates into leadership positions like Cathy McMorris Rodgers instead of Tom...

Since the DemRats do not wish to abide by Constitutional principles and government if someone knows how to and would create a Petition to Expel the Democrats and/or the Blue states from the Union online I'm sure it would quickly pick up team .

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Nate Silver has gotten a lot of press for his near perfect election night predictions. In 2008 Silver gained popularity and influence after he called 49 out of 50 states. Many pundits were predicting that Silver would crash and burn in 2012. Instead, he outperformed his 2008 predictions and now that Florida has been called for president Obama, Silver can tout a perfect record 50 out of 50 states called correctly.How did Silver do it?Only Likely Voters Matter: This is one obvious reason SilverÂ’s method outshines everyone else. Anything other than likely voter models is useless information. This is key....

Note to Chris Matthews: when seeking to slam Republicans for their supposed ignorance of science, try not to expose your own. On Tuesday's Hardball, Matthews—mocking the Republican congressmen vying for the chairmanship of the House Science Committee— committed this whopper: "As we all learned in grammar school—young people watching—trees absorb carbon monoxide." Uh, no, Chris. As even an MSNBC host might know, carbon monoxide is a toxic gas produced when there is insufficient oxygen to permit complete oxidation. Think running car in closed garage. Trees absorb carbon dioxide. Perhaps it was just a slip of the overworked Matthews' tongue, but...

Sanjay Sangohee has by all accounts enjoyed great success since coming to America. His Huffington Post biography makes that abundantly clear: "Sanjay Sanghoee is a banker and the author of Merger, a fast-paced financial thriller published by Forge Books and reviewed by Chicago Tribune, BARRON’s and others - available on Amazon. . . . He has more than a decade of experience in banking, ranging from Mergers & Acquisitions at Lazard and Dresdner to the investment side at Ramius, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund." One might expect that such prosperity would have inspired some gratitude for the system of government...

The Republican Party went into the 2012 elections with a number of handicaps. One of the biggest of these handicaps was that it genuinely believed in a single country defined by the American Dream of family values, hard work and national greatness. The Democratic Party, which scored decisive victories across the country, never believed in any such thing, though its leading lights, like Obama, occasionally paid lip service to the idea as a sop to older white voters who would have been turned off by the 2012 version of Obama sounding like the 2002 version of Obama. Where the Republican...

President Obama's re-election team has already been lauded for its mastery of data and organziation, but a feature in today's The New York Times looks at another secret, and more subtle, weapon: Behavioral science. Reporter Benedict Carey talks to some of the members of the campaign's "COBS" team, an informal group of unpaid advisors who shared their knowledge on the latest academic research and theories on how to influence the public's knowledge behavior. Publicly, the group—which it gave itself the name of "consortium of behavioral scientists"—where just friendly volunteers offering advice. None of the social scientists and psychologists who took...

The 2012 election certainly didn’t end as planned for the GOP, which failed to win the presidency and lost seats in both chambers of Congress. Nonetheless, Republicans found a silver lining in the fact that they maintained control of the House, having won at least 233 seats as of Tuesday — 218 are needed for a majority. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) argued on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” that the election was a clean sweep for Democrats. He said the GOP wouldn’t have retained control of the House if it wasn’t for questionable redistricting by Republicans. The Brennan Center for Justice...

The St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections is admitting that mistakes were made on election night When uploading results from the last three days of early voting, Gertrude Walker blames human and machine errors, telling TC Palm "i'm not perfect, neither is my staff". 40 of 94 precincts, mostly in Fort Pierce, weren't counted at all and another 54 precincts were counted twice. In total ballots, more than 3,600 in St. Lucie were counted twice, while 1,953 were not scanned at all. Walker says a retabulation on sunday corrected the error, and she claims she's confident that every vote has...