Free Republic

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords received the 2013 Profile in Courage award at the John F. Kennedy Library on Sunday in recognition of the political, personal, and physical courage she has demonstrated in her fearless public advocacy for policy reforms aimed at reducing gun violence.

This week's presidential radio address will be delivered by the mother of a victim of the Newtown massacre, the AP reports. "The White House says the mother of a Newtown shooting victim will deliver the weekly presidential radio and Internet address," reports the AP. "President Barack Obama typically gives the talk, focusing on a topic that's in the news or a policy the White House is pushing. "This week, Obama has asked Francine Wheeler to deliver the address instead. Wheeler and her husband, David, lost their 6-year-old son Ben in the December schoolhouse shooting in Newtown, Conn."

Liberals have an uncanny knack for designing solutions that do not address the problem at hand, and they're doing it again in their current effort to use the Sandy Hook shootings as fodder for promoting stringent gun control measures. It's as if President Obama and his fellow travelers lie in wait for the unfolding of big events that they can use to incite the public's passions and thereby gain popular support for otherwise unpopular government action. Liberals aren't just exploiting Sandy Hook to promote their unpopular gun agenda; some are now invoking false charges of racism to aid their...

Connecticut legislator DebraLee Hovey, a six-term Republican state representative for the towns of Monroe and Newtown, had some candid, if ill-advised words for Gabrielle Giffords, who visited with victims of the Sandy Hook shooting on Friday. "Gabby Gifford [sic] stay out of my towns!!" Hovey wrote on her then-public Facebook, via mobile from Saint Pete Beach, Florida. "It was political," she elaborated in the comments, according to cringey screenshots obtained by the Hartford Courant. "The Lt Gov was there […] and ALL political types KNOW it is courteous to let sitting Reps known when another political [sic] is in their...

Former US Representative Gabrielle Giffords will visit Newtown, Conn., the site of last month's deadly shooting in which 20 first graders were killed. Giffords survived a mass shooting in her home state of Arizona two years ago... ... Giffords plans to attend a private event at a local home on Friday, Steven Jensen, spokesman for Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, said in an email. The event will have no media access and Giffords' plans are still developing and may change

Alongside a slew of Hollywood celebrities, mayors such as New York’s Michael Bloomberg, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and St. Paul’s own Chris Coleman are calling for more gun control and taking the NRA to task for calling for armed guards in every school. Coleman, a vice president of the National League of Cities, released the following statement on the Newtown, Conn. tragedy on Friday, Dec. 21. "On the day when we’re still burying children killed in Newtown, CT, the NRA has the audacity to say the answer is more guns and more violence that exposes our children to unprecedented dangers. As...

Just cut away from 49ers vs. Patriots...

Toddlers and Tiaras- The exploitation of children by childish parents. The subject of discussion is this segment of the Conscience of Kansas radio program on KRMR The Patriot 105.7FM with host Dr. Paul A. Ibbetson.

"Someone at NBC Apparently Approved This Creepy, Porny Video of Female Olympians. Have you barfed yet today? Get thee to a drain of some kind before watching this video the pervs over at NBC have put together in order to show their appreciation for Olympic bodies of the 2012 London Games. Unfortunately, to NBC, showcasing the "Bodies in Motion" of the XXX Olympiad means taking footage of conventionally attractive female athletes competing in sports that require them to be scantily clad, slowing it way down as the camera lovingly caresses their butts, breasts, and bouncing ponytails, and playing some soft...

And for the most part that is exactly what the Islamic abduction, exploitation, and abuse of children is in the mainstream media,--invisible!Recently a video entitled "Kony 2012" has gone viral on youtube and been given much attention by major media. Your regular nightly-news programs have no doubt shown some small clips of the video.The video is about Joeseph Kony the evil leader of a guerrilla terrorist group deceptively called the LRA [Lords Resistance Army], and it's horrible practice of using abducted-exploited children as child-soldiers. While the makers of the video correctly state that Kony is not currently supported by anyone [government] ,they omitted the fact that up until 2000 Kony and the LRA were...

The Lifetime Television Network claims to be for women. Its mission statement claims: Lifetime Networks is a diverse, multi-media company, committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming content that celebrates, entertains and supports women. Through its award-winning public affairs initiatives, the Company also advocates a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Nowhere in their statement do they mention the well-being of little girls, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that this network would choose to produce an episode of a show called “Dance Moms” in which little girls are basically taught...

we run a business in one of the sates mentioned below. last month we got socked with a huge retro charge from the Feds on unemployment insurance. Paycor, who runs our payroll, sent the below. Apparantly when the Obama administration extended UC benefits last time, the states couldnt pay, and the feds "loaned" them the money. Now that the states can't pay it back, the Feds, by fiat, just take it from business that actually still has employees. Unexpectedly, without warning, without any process. From the payroll company; There are 22 states that have outstanding loans from the federal government...

(Reuters) - Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords served a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday to Air Force personnel in her first constituent event since she was shot in the head in January, her office said. Giffords dished out turkey with tongs as she stood between Brigadier General Jon Norman and her husband Mark Kelly, said Giffords' spokesman Mark Kimble. The event at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was expected to draw more than 400 people, mostly U.S. Air Force personnel, retired service members and their families. Giffords was shot on January 8 at an event for constituents at a Tucson supermarket. College dropout Jared...

Here we are again, the Left exploiting children to push their own convoluted agenda. This time, it's Van Jones using children to push his 10-point "Contract for the American Dream" plan. Ironically, in the video the children plead to increase Social Security taxes so our seniors can have a secure retirement. Too bad Van Jones isn't telling these kids that when they get a job and start paying into the Social Security system, they'll never see a dime of their own money back when they retire. Points made in the video: 1. Invest in American's Infrastructure 2. Create 21st Century...

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A 29-year-old medical marijuana patient accused of sharing his pot with a 15-year-old girl in Missoula has been charged with a felony. Benjamin Levi Bartlett appeared in Justice Court on Friday on a charge of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs. Bail was set at $25,000, and Bartlett has been ordered to surrender his medical marijuana card. Police say an officer riding his bike along a river trail in July saw the girl hide something beneath a rock, and a search turned up a pipe and a baggie of marijuana. Court records say Bartlett told the officer...

First, let me congratulate Arianna Huffington on selling The Huffington Post to AOL for a reported $315 million. Isn't America a great place? Arianna came up with a great business model. Create a place where liberals could tell each other how smart they were, where they could write blog posts without being paid, and where they could create a community of commenters who routinely attacked the evil Republicans...and then sell out for mucho dinero. It always amazed me that HuffPo bloggers (not the handful of well paid staffers, but the great unwashed) thought they were so special by being allowed...

Lindt Lindor Chocolate commercial

China invested a total of $14.37 million in North Korea in 2005, up $9 million from 2004 and $1.5 million from 2002. China invested only $160,000 in 1998 and $480,000 in 1994. It is believed more Chinese capital is flowing to the North because of the opaque nature of both regimes. But it is clear that China's investment has jumped since 2002, when North Korea adopted an economic reform package which eased restrictions on foreign investment.

Many critics argue that Christopher Columbus gave us a devil's bargain. In October 1492 that Italian explorer, working for Spain, opened America to his fellow Europeans. The result: we got a prosperous New World by impoverishing, enslaving and murdering the natives who were already here. But this view fails to distinguish between two types of exploitation—one over other humans and the other over nature: the former which should be expunged from our moral codes and civilized society, the latter which is the essence of morality and civilization. The former form of exploitation was suffered especially by the tens of millions...

An insightful article in the sophisticated leftwing site, Counterpunch, further strips Ms. Shirley Sherrod of the martyr's rags she has been wearing since first exposed and then un-exposed as a racist Ag official two weeks back. The author, Ron Wilkins, had worked under an assumed name at Sherrod's New Communities Incorporated (NCI) in the 1970s. A former organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Wilkins had been tasked with discovering the reasons for "NCI's continued poor performance." What he discovered was that at NCI "the young and old worked long hours with few breaks, the pay averaged sixty-seven cents an...

Readers who read my original Washington Examiner post about Shirley Sherrod know that she and husband Charles received $150,000 each for "pain and suffering” as part of "a thirteen million dollar settlement in the minority farmers law suit Pigford vs Vilsack." Based on history presented by Ron Wilkins yesterday at Counterpunch, it's appropriate to ask: "Whose pain and suffering?" It now seems that Mr. and Mrs. Sherrod inflicted quite a bit of pain and suffering on their own -- and on some of the very people Mr. Sherrod described as "our own" in a speech earlier this year -- at...

Like most of my young clients, Becky considers herself a progressive leftist. But unlike her peers, she is also angered by the Left. Becky's main gripe is street harassment -- and liberal men not having her back. Becky consulted with a male friend and asked him why so many men of color accost her on the streets of Berkeley. She's lived all over the world and hasn't run into this much abuse elsewhere. Her friend told her, "The brothers harass you to put you in your place, to knock you down from your high holy horse. It's about power." Becky's...

When I was a college student, a summer internship at a big-city newspaper seemed just the thing to boost my nascent journalism career. But instead, I spent the summers as a big-city doorman, filling in for the regulars while they were on vacation. The reason was simple: Being a doorman paid a lot more, and I needed the money for tuition. A generation later, for a student in my shoes, the situation is quite a bit worse. Nowadays many internships don't pay anything at all, yet landing an internship has come to seem almost essential. The National Assn. of Colleges...

<p>Monday was the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that left 149 men and women - most of them federal workers - and 19 children dead. As is his habit, former President Bill Clinton used the occasion to bash his critics.</p>

In a final act of desperation, Barack Obama has exploited cancer patient Natoma Canfield of Ohio to aggressively sell his unpopular and politically uncertain attempt at so-called health care "reform," Obamacare. While at it, he also lied about her situation to scare ill-informed Americans into supporting his plan to wreck one-sixth of the US economy. Appearing at a rally in Strongsville, Ohio, Obama cited cancer patient Natoma Canfield's story to drum up emotion, block out the facts, and discourage a rational understanding of his health care "reform." Last week, Senate Democrats exploited an 11-year-old boy who recently lost his mother...

PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SPEAK ANY MINUTE ON TRAGEDY IN HAITI

ELDORADO, Tex. — One of the leaders of a polygamist sect was convicted Thursday night of sexually assaulting an under-age girl whom the church elders had assigned to him as one of his nine wives. A jury of seven men and five women deliberated 2 hours 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty in the first trial of a dozen members of the Yearning for Zion Ranch just outside this rural hamlet in West Texas. The defendant, Raymond M. Jessop, 38, seemed unperturbed as Judge Barbara Walther of State District Court read the verdict. Mr. Jessop was immediately handcuffed...

Okay … so the title of this blog is alarming, right? Well, yeah! Nobody in this country takes the charge of racist lightly – especially white Americans. That’s because white Americans have had the charge of racism beaten into their consciousness for more than six decades, now. [1] But, incredible as it may seem, just as soon as one charge of racism is laid to rest with the election of the first so-called post-racial President, another charge of racism rises to take its place. This time, we are told, the racists are those who believe that the Mayan culture teaches...

NORTH ROSE — The Wayne County Farm Bureau wants the federal government to investigate local Border Patrol activities after Monday’s detention of four migrant farm workers. The men were stopped while driving on Route 414. According to the Farm Bureau, there were no issues when their vehicle was checked, and none had outstanding warrants. Farm Bureau President Phil Wagner called the incident “a clear case of racial profiling.” But A.J. Price, a public affairs officer with the Border Patrol’s Buffalo district headquarters, said officers approached the men because they were blocking the intersection of Routes 104 and 414. Wagner disputed...

Air Force Document Media Exploitation team members triage evidence taken from captured enemies, Aug. 21. The DOMEX mission is to exploit information from captured enemy documents, electronic media and cell phones. The team's work contributes to theater and national intelligence efforts in support of targeting and detainee operations, force protection and criminal prosecution. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Johnny Saldivar. VICTORY BASE COMPLEX — The job of more than 60 Airmen on the Tactical Documentation and Media Exploitation Brigade Support Team here can be summed up in their unique motto, "You check their pulse, we'll check their pockets."The DOMEX mission is...

I am on the email list of a dear black friend of 20 years. He is a minister, writer and professor. He has mentored and advised me with great wisdom on numerous occasions. With me being a black conservative Republican and he a Democrat, we avoid talking politics. Since the election of Obama, my friend will talk about nothing else. He is in Baltimore. I'm in Florida. Every time he calls me, he turns the conversation into trashing all who oppose Obama's agenda. Thank God for caller ID. I received a mass email from my friend in which he vilifies...

"Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine."

CHILD-TRAFFICKING gangs were moving pregnant women from country to country, then waiting for them to give birth before selling their babies, Australia's chief federal magistrate said yesterday. John Pascoe said the infants were being sold mainly for illegal adoption but also for sexual exploitation, slavery and begging. He said demand for babies who only knew their adoptive parents was high. "More importantly, the children have no official identity or proven nationality and, therefore, an identity can be easily forged to suit the purpose for which they are intended," Mr Pascoe said in Singapore, addressing a conference on the trafficking in...

It makes one wonder what makes Al Gore leave his palatial mansion with the giant carbon footprint, take a gas guzzling limo, to his private plane and spread CO2 all across the world just to promote the global warming hoax. It can't be that he actually believes the distorted research he peddles. If that was the case, he wouldn't be such a major polluter. Maybe it has something to do with protecting his investment. After all, he is founder and chairman of a venture capital company that has invested about $1 billion in companies that just might make a bundle...

An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights. The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the...

Second Lt. Mohammed, an Iraqi Army platoon leader assigned to 3rd Battalion, 40th Iraqi Army Brigade, coaches his Soldiers through a room clearing exercise during a three-day joint training exercise with their American counterparts from 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division on Forward Operating Base Cedar, Iraq. Photo by 1st Lt. Patrick Dunn. FORWARD OPERATING BASE CEDAR — Iraqi Army (IA) Soldiers here recently underwent three days of intense training overseen by their U.S. counterparts. The 40th IA Brigade Soldiers were instructed by U.S. 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers on various tactical formations, including entering...

For well over a century, socialists, progressives, and even many Christians have railed against the capitalist exploitation of workers. They denounce capitalists—whether the Carnegies and Fricks of yesteryear or the Nikes of today—for paying low wages for hard work. Their antagonism toward individual and corporate targets is misplaced. The inexorable law of supply and demand, not greedy exploiters, determines wages. When the supply of labor exceeds capital’s demand for labor, wages are low. Carnegie could pay low wages because if Smith wasn’t willing to work for a pittance, Jones was. Why? Because those low wages were superior to Jones’ other...

ATLANTA – Malika Garrett, 43, and her husband, Russell Garrett, 43, a former Forsyth County, Georgia, Deputy Sheriff, both of Woodstock, Georgia, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of harboring and exploiting their illegal alien nanny. Malika Garrett and Russell Garrett both pleaded guilty to one count of harboring an alien for private financial gain, and Malika Garrett pleaded guilty to an additional count of making a false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the case, “Harboring illegal immigrant domestic workers and causing them...

Please take a minute and go to http://www.cnn.com/showbiztonight and vote on the question of the day: Sarah Palin's New Interview: Did Tina Fey and Katie Couric exploit her? As we all know, the media did all it could during the elections to assassinate Gov. Palin's character. We need to make sure to vote on this and let CNN know that we're not part of the brain-washed masses who believe every word the liberal media puts out.

Emma Watson says she is at that strange age when she’s “not a woman yet, but I’m not a girl anymore.” At 18 years old, the “Harry Potter” starlet – whom the Times of London calls “tiny and pretty and delightfully brought up” – is clearly poised for adulthood, and even says she would go naked in a film for the right role.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2008 – President Bush warned today that terrorists could use the government transition under way as an opportunity to attack, and urged his staff to give the incoming administration the support it needs to “hit the ground running.” Bush addressed members of his Cabinet, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and executive office staffers on the South Lawn of the White House. Terrorists might be tempted to take advantage of the first U.S. wartime presidential transition in four decades, he warned. “We're in a struggle against violent extremists determined to attack us, and they would like...

Look at the group of teachers and adults smiling in the background. No wonder homeschooling is so prevalent. There's no chance those kids have any idea of what they are singing about! My first response was Hitler youth.

RUSH: Folks, I got the most incredible sound bites for you. Kids in North Korea and Cuba, in Saddam Hussein's old Iraq and other regimes, were taught to sing songs to their leaders. There's a video out that says that the...? Where it was shot? In fact, I tell you. You know what? Since I brought it up, go ahead and grab the bites. It's 36, 37, 38. The beginning of the video says that the video "took place in a neighbor's house in Venice, California Venice, as if it were some kind of spontaneous grassroots effort by a bunch...

New Haven (AP) _ A family of Ecuadorean immigrants has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the owners of a New Haven bakery shop where they worked of sexually and verbally abusing them for years. They also allege the owners refused to pay the minimum wage or overtime and threatened to deport them if they complained. The unusual lawsuit by undocumented immigrants was filed earlier this month under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Olger Nestor Urena Flores and members of his family are making the allegations against Antonio DiBenedetto and his wife, Anna, who own Rocco's Bakery in New Haven and...

Camelot has withdrawn its short-lived "Cool Cash" scratchcard after it required a higher than absolute zero grasp of how numbers work to understand it. According to the Manchester Evening News, to qualify for a prize, punters had to "scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card". Sadly, as the card had a decidedly wintery theme, this initially-shown figure was often below zero. Cue anarchy, as Camelot was beseiged by "dozens" of confused customers who thought they'd won, but suffered a "computer says no" snub. Among these was Levenshulme's Tina Farrel, a 23-year-old...

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has been criticised over a fundraising party at which participants are being urged to donate $9.11. The International Association of Fire Fighters accuses him of exploiting the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Mr Giuliani rose to national prominence as New York's mayor on 9/11. The Giuliani campaign says it did not plan the event, which is due to take place on Wednesday evening in California at the home of a supporter. Nevertheless, the firefighters association said the stated theme of the fundraiser - "$9.11 for Rudy" was in poor taste. "It is nothing short of...

[C]arriers have introduced a variety of fees to reach even deeper into customers' pockets. Some, like Northwest Airlines, are charging as much as $15 for coach passengers to reserve a more leg-friendly aisle seat. Others, like American Airlines, are charging up to $15 for changes to seat assignments that aren't made online.

WASHINGTON - As he tries to explain how he'll cope with the return of his wife's cancer, presidential hopeful John Edwards is opening up about another family struggle — the death of his teenage son Wade 11 years ago. His family life suddenly in the spotlight, Edwards has responded by speaking about an experience bound to bring him sympathy, humanize his campaign and focus on perseverance after tragedy. The discussion began last Thursday when John and Elizabeth Edwards announced her breast cancer had spread to her bone. It continued Saturday when Edwards was asked if he could balance the campaign...

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n64985.htm Our borders have been turned into "land of nobody",Nuestras fronteras se han vuelto tierra de nadie the consul of Guatemala in Tapachula, mister Melvin Valdez, denounced that the migrant Guatemalans suffer exploitation during its step by Mexico... http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n64985.htm/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dguatemala%2Bguatemalteco%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

A Democrat community leader who would "offer a homily during worship services" and facilitated his congregation's "opening our doors to all people regardless of sexual orientation" has been given a slap on the hand after pleading guilty to extensive child pornography offenses involving children as young as six. Authorities say Andrew Douglas Reed, 53, who reported for an abbreviated jail term just a few weeks ago, had pleaded guilty to a page-long list of counts of 2nd-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. Court records in the Asheville, N.C., case said he admitted that he would "record, develop and duplicate material...