Free Republic

If our government has any obligation to fulfill its many promises on health care, it should be first and foremost to the men and women who served in our armed forces. But the scandal over hidden waiting lists at a growing number of veterans’ hospitals (seven so far) — wherein dozens of veterans died while waiting months for vital treatment, and the VA covered up the lengthy wait times — should make everyone wonder whether we can place our trust in a government-managed health-care system. The Dayton Daily News reported on Sunday that its investigation of a database of...

Half a Billion Dollars. That’s how much the California Teachers Association and the powerful Service Employees International Union have spent on California politics since 2000. The unions’ return on that “investment”? A legislature totally beholden to them for political support and campaign contributions. Here’s another mind-boggling number: Half a Trillion Dollars. That’s an estimate of the unfunded public pension liabilities racked up by California’s state and municipal governments due to overly generous pay and defined benefit pension plans lavished on unionized government employees. If you thought the bankruptcies of Stockton, San Bernardino, and Vallejo were entertaining, break out the popcorn...

They haven’t – yet – succeeded in “controlling” guns. Taking them out of our control, that is. One reason for this is the ferocious pushback from gun owners, who are numerous and take the threat posed by even innocuous-seeming schemes such as “background checks” and bans of “high capacity” magazines (and so on) very seriously.dodge ad It’s been the same – so far – with regard to their so-far-unsuccessful efforts to outlaw old cars. Or to enact legislation that would amount to the same thing via various end-runs. It is still “legal” to own and operate a vehicle built without...

Just how many of the LONG time GOP-e/Rinos that infest DC and pulled the SAME(or similar) BS(like "siccing" US Government Agencies(like the IRS) on opponents or people they did not agree with?

A group of self-described revolutionary-style patriots with a million mobilized militia members are heading to downtown Washington, D.C., this week to bring a simple message to political leadership, from President Obama to House Speaker John Boehner: Get out. They’re called the Operation American Spring — and they’re vowing to oust the likes of Mr. Obama, Mr. Boehner, Attorney General Eric Holder, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Raw Story reported.

American Dependency (And The 3rd Day Of The Month Effect) Tyler Durden 05/13/2014 16:51 -0400 Submitted by Rory of The Daily Coin via Jim Quinn's Burning Platform blog. Having noted America's surging government dependence before, the impact of almost 50 million people on food stamps is hard to imagine if you are not in retail food. The spike in business beginning on the 3rd of each month is truly astounding. By the 10th of the month the business begins to normalize and by the 22nd the ship is sinking. When there is a holiday in the month we experience a...

...Why does the Economist magazine put a tethered eagle on its cover, with the plaintive question, "What would America fight for?" Why do Washington Post columnists sympathetic to the administration write pieces like one last week headlined, "Obama tends to create his own foreign policy headaches"? Clues may be found in the president's selfie with the attractive Danish prime minister at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in December; in State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki in March cheerily holding up a sign with the Twitter TWTR +0.44% hashtag #UnitedForUkraine while giving a thumbs up; or Michelle Obama looking glum last...

Former Wisconsin Gov. Patrick Lucey, a hard-nosed Democratic politician who later became the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has died. He was 96. Lucey, who also ran for vice president of the United States as an independent in 1980, died Saturday night at the Milwaukee Catholic Home after a brief Illness, said his son, Paul Lucey, of Milwaukee. He said funeral arrangements are pending.

PARAMUS (WABC) -- A crowd of frightened shoppers trying to exit a department store after smoke seeped in from a nearby car fire knocked over a metal support frame, leading to mistaken reports of gunshots and the evacuation of the upscale mall, authorities said Sunday. A car fire caused tires to explode at about 8 p.m. Saturday at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus. As smoke from that fire entered the store, workers told customers to leave. The moving crowd knocked over a large metal display stanchion on the store's main level, causing noises that many confused for gunshots. Another...

In the Atlantic, resident racial theorist Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the idea that opposition to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s was due to racial animus, just like today! Famously known as the “first black president,” Coates explains that racism caused people to turn against many of his policies, eventually leading to his impeachment. She claims that it was opposition to Clinton’s supposed policies to help blacks that many Americans opposed him– and that racism animated most American politics: White supremacy birthed American politics. In the 1990s, as today, the Democratic Party was perceived by many as the party of black...

OBAMA,Saul Alinsky and the Rise of Amorality in American Politics by D. L. Adams (January 2010) http://www.newenglishreview.org/DL_Adams/Saul_Alinsky_and_the_Rise_of_Amorality_in_American_Politics/ Saul Alinsky and his "community organizing" methods and philosophy have had a profound influence on the politics of the United States. Recent history would suggest that this influence is just short of catastrophic. Alinsky's book, "Rules for Radicals," published in 1971 still has enormous effects on our country today. Hillary Clinton wrote her Wellesley College thesis on Alinsky, interviewing him personally for her research. After her graduation Alinsky offered her a job with his organization, which she refused to pursue other opportunities. President...

The Obama administration just put in an order for nearly a ton of marijuana; 1,430 pounds to be exact. That’s a lot of weed, and the estimated street value of that much weed is approximately $650,000. What do you think would happen to a private citizen if they were caught with that much weed? They’d probably never see the moon again, except through bars, if their cell was on the external wall side of the prison, but for the Government, it’s just business as usual. What the Government actually does with the marijuana they buy is test it in attempts...

A plan to ban "frequent and large gatherings at neighborhood homes" is a lawsuit waiting to happen, a Fairfax County supervisor predicts. Officials will get an idea Wednesday when public-comment hearings begin in Virginia's most populous county. "I believe the county is risking a lawsuit and/or a Constitution challenge by interfering with peoples' right to assemble," Supervisor Pat Herrity said in a statement.

Q Here's a good one for you, Gary. I live in Alameda. One recent weekday about 8 a.m., I went out to my car to go to work and found a ticket on it for no front license plate. The time on the ticket was 3:42 a.m.You mean to tell me that Alameda police have nothing better to do than go around putting tickets on cars at 3:42 in the morning? I've heard of Mickey Mouse before but this takes the cake, as it were. A OK, I'll first perform my civic duty and say that two plates are required...

A recent book by Burton W. Folsom Jr. and his wife Anita, Uncle Sam Can’t Count, draws on examples from the past and present to show why government subsidies overwhelmingly do not work. There have been a few that can be considered successful, such as the Erie Canal system, the atomic bomb development, and putting a man on the moon.  However, for the most part, the federal government always seems to pick the losers, not the winners, when attempting to interfere with the free market system.  The authors show in the book that from the days of George Washington to...

A U.S. food safety summit in Maryland earlier this month has become a cautionary tale after more than 100 attendees came down with suspected food poisoning. Most of those affected complained of diarrhea, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement.

Does IQ correlate with power? How many powerful people in the U.S. are actually geniuses, and how much does intelligence really affect success? In one of my research papers published last year, Investigating America's Elite, I set out to address these questions. I collected data on some key groups that greatly influence society: Fortune 500 CEOs, billionaires, federal judges, Senators, and House members. Individuals were deemed to be in the top 1% of ability if they attended an undergraduate or graduate school that had extremely high average standardized test scores that put the typical person well within the top 1%....

There ought to be a law prohibiting Massachusetts politicians from writing books that few people actually read, especially when they write them on company time. Nevertheless, the politicians still make money on these quickie books, thanks to outrageous advances from publishers. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, now being feted by crazed liberals as the possible next president of the United States, is only the latest example of a politician seeking to cash in on her newfound fame. Gov. Deval Patrick did it, getting a $1.3 million advance for his book. Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown followed suit with a book of...

The government bureaucrats who regulate and inspect our food for a living may be less than competent at scrutinizing their own meals. The national Food Safety Summit was attended by 1,300 food safety officials, including agents of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control as well as a number of large businesses. Officials hired the Baltimore Convention Center and its food service provider, Centerplate, to host and cater the event. “A couple of our folks indicated that they had experienced symptoms associated with food poisoning after the summit,” said FDA spokeswoman Juli Putnam.

Trust in nearly every federal government institution has fallen in the last year among young adults, according to a new poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics. The survey of 18-to-29-year-old adults released Tuesday found overall trust in the federal government stands at 20 percent, a 2-point drop since last year....