Free Republic

Lighthouses for sale! Actually, lots of lighthouses for free. Technological advances and a desire to purge unneeded properties have paved the way for the federal government to get rid of more than 100 lighthouses over the last 14 years, and it intends to keep selling and giving them away. The sold lighthouses, located on both coasts and in the Great Lakes states, have become everything from museums to bed-and-breakfasts. […] The federal General Services Administration, which sells the lighthouses, does not have a target number of how many lighthouses it would like to sell and give away, but the Coast...

When the General Services Administration (GSA), the agency in charge of supplying products and communications for US government offices, chose Google Apps for email and calendaring functions back in 2011, fear was no doubt struck into the heart of Microsoft. After all, the Microsoft MSFT -0.71% Office franchise has been the number one pick of Government agencies for decades. That the GSA would chose an upstart like Google GOOGL -0.35% was something of a shock. Well, the stress in Redmond continues with news today that the GSA has selected Smartsheet to be its online collaborative project management tool. This is,...

An April Congressional Research Service (CRS) report shows that the Government Services Administration (GSA), which is in charge of supporting federal disbursements, budgeted $950,000 for former president Bill Clinton in the 2014 budget. Clinton will collect a $201,000 pension in 2014, a figure four times larger than the median family income in the United States. The Clintons have received a total of $15,938,000 in federal money since 2001. Hillary Clinton recently described the poverty her family experienced upon exiting the White House while promoting her book. They were “dead broke,” Hillary said, adding that she and her husband “struggled to,...

When Martha Johnson thinks back to that Monday in April 2012 when she resigned as head of the General Services Administration, she remembers a day as still as the hands on a broken clock. She had spent the weekend practicing her resignation speech in front of the mirror. She repeated it over and over until her face had memorized how to form the words without twitching. Until her voice could say it without warbling. Until her eyes could stop all that blinking. Finally it was time. She walked into the 2 p.m. senior staff meeting at the GSA, gave her...

Carne, 62, pleaded guilty to a single count of embezzlement Monday in Hanover Circuit Court and faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced in July.

I made a stupid gaffe on the radio last week. While hosting a national radio show, I said that, in general, the liberal professors who have turned higher education into the toxic stew that produced porn star “Belle Knox” needed to be “taken out and shot.” This was a figure of speech; I certainly did not mean it literally. It is a figure of speech, I suspect, that everyone reading this has used, and everyone who clamored for my ruination has used also. The reaction was swift, massive, and unforgiving – first playing itself out on Twitter but then...

Hannah Sheboy, 16, has been a Girl Scout most of her life and believes that there are some clear positives to being a part of the organization. From helping girls build their confidence and making new friends to having a strong foundation to grow up with, the Girl Scouts have helped Hannah become who she is today. “The positives can’t outweigh what’s going on [with the Planned Parenthood-Girl Scouts connection], but they are certainly there,” says Hannah. “I don’t think I’d be able to do a project like this without the strong foundation I have from both my church community...

When we remember the Jewish children thrown alive into ditches by the Nazis and then think about the  little girls outside Walmart selling cookies, it seems an offense to decency to suggest any comparison between the Bund Deutsche Madel (League of German Girls, or BDM) and the Girl Scouts.  Nevertheless, both Nazism and post-1960s American feminism (neo-feminism in this essay) envision exclusionary, utopian socialist societies.  Both indoctrinate girls from a young age to advance their visions.  And there are parallels in structure, activities, and ethos.Changes to the Girl Scout Law reveal the core of the shifts from individually focused, morally...

New York, NY (CFAM) — Who speaks for youth? Catholic teens are wondering after participating in a Girl Scouts meeting to collect young women’s opinions on the new goals that will steer UN policy – and billions of dollars in aid – for years to come. “We were just a ‘means to an end,’” said one young lady. “All they wanted was for us to validate their point.” The UN is undergoing a lengthy process to determine new goals on poverty and development. Many say young people’s opinions should be included and a number of groups are stepping forward to...

As millions of moms consider digging into pocketbooks for Girl Scout cookies this year, they may be interested to know about the hiring of Krista Kokjohn-Poehler in the Girl Scouts executive office in New York City. Kokjohn-Poehler is an out lesbian married to a woman named Ashley Kokjohn. And, given her sexual preference, it may strike some as odd that her job title is "Girl Experience Officer." Penny Nance, former Girl Scout and president of Concerned Women for America, told Breitbart News, “In the last ten years the Girl Scouts have lost about a few hundred thousand members, and part...

There is now little doubt that the Girl Scout cookie boycott is having an effect on cookie sales this year. Girl Scout spokesman Kelly Parisi went on The O’Reilly Factor this week to try and defuse the mounting controversy, and Girl Scout executives have sent threatening letters to their critics. Girl Scout CEO Anna Marie Chavez took to YouTube on Thursday to deny all charges leveled by the boycotters and to deny at least one charge they haven’t even made. “Recently, various individuals and organizations announced their intention to boycott GS cookies this year, based on mistaken beliefs about our...

The website LifeNews.com has recently come under fire for writing about the Girls Scout connection to abortion groups like Planned Parenthood. This blogger will not review the connections already published by Life News and others participating in the CookieCott of the Girl Scouts. What I would like to documents is the longstanding relationship members of the Girl Scouts have had with abortion giant Planned Parenthood. 1985 – Planned Parenthood admits Girls Scouts are supportive of their programs:

Through our attorney, LifeNews has issued a response to Girl Scouts USA, which recently sent us an a letter attempting to intimidate LifeNews and pressure us to stop reporting on its links to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. During the last two weeks, LifeNews has brought international attention to the link between the Girl Scouts and the Planned Parenthood abortion business and the national boycott of Girl Scouts cookies sponsored by pro-life groups. As we reported, after a series of LifeNews articles on the boycott and the Girl Scouts-Planned Parenthood link, that featured the Girl Scouts logo to identify the...

The Girl Scouts of the USA has sent threatening letters to at least two small pro-life groups that have been critical of Girl Scout collaborations with Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocacy groups. Since the beginning of the Girl Scout cookie boycott, exclusively announced at Breitbart News late last month, LifeNews has extensively reported on the connection between Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts. LifeNews editor Steve Ertelt announced Monday that he had received a letter threatening legal action. In it, Girl Scout executive Brian Crawford complained about “articles that outline alleged ties to Planned Parenthood” and that “GSUSA has...

During the last two weeks, LifeNews has brought international attention to the link between the Girl Scouts and the Planned Parenthood abortion business and the national boycott of Girl Scouts cookies sponsored by pro-life groups. The pro-life movement has been concerned for a number of years about the ties between the Girl Scouts and the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Although the Girl Scout organization maintains that it takes “no position” on the issue of abortion, parents, churches, and pro-life activists have long complained of the pro-abortion slant of the Girl Scouts’ resources, role models, and affiliations. girlscouts5After a series of...

Girl Scouts USA was a founding member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and is its largest member. In 2008 and 2009 over 60% of WAGGGS’ membership fees ($2.45 million and $2.3 million respectively) came from GSUSA. Prominently displayed on every Daisy, Brownie, and Girl Scout uniform is the World Trefoil Pin, to “represent their connection to the worldwide sisterhood of Girl Scouting and Girl Guiding.” (Source for graphic here.) 2014-02-06_1205 The two groups are joined at the hip. In March 2010 WAGGGS bragged that one of its delegates, Nefeli Themeli, was among a group of...

The Girl Scouts should be an organization dedicated to teaching young girls moral values, teamwork, leadership, self-esteem and other skills kids need growing up. I am concerned about the long list of ways in which the Girl Scouts have: * partnered with Planned parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, * participated in international conferences promoting abortion, * hired pro-abortion feminists as national Girl Scout leaders, * promoted pro-abortion politicians like Wendy Davis and Kathleen Sebelius The Girl Scouts should not be partnering with the Planned Parenthood abortion business or promoting abortion or pro-abortion groups and people. Therefore, until the Girl...

Anti-abortion groups angry over what they see as the Girl Scouts' support for abortion-rights advocates, including Democratic Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, have launched a cookie boycott. The groups have taken issue with tweets and Facebook postings that link to articles recognizing Davis, who shot to political stardom last year with a filibuster of abortion limits, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, another Democrat who supports abortion rights. "It's very clear that they are not citing any pro-life leaders with any praise, even though their official stand is they are not taking any position on abortion," said John...

Co-authored with John Jalsevac February 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Soon millions of Americans will be buying Thin Mints from Girl Scouts at churches, street corners, and at neighbors' homes. But according to Human Life Alliance, American Life League, My Girl Scouts Council, and Live Action, those concerned about the sanctity of human life should consider boycotting the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) over the organization's links to pro-abortion organizations and individuals. The groups are organizing a Tweetfest on Thursday, urging Americans to use the hashtag #Cookiecott on Twitter to draw attention to GSUSA's associations with Planned Parenthood and other...

A little girl selling Girl Scout cookies was once a symbol of an organization trusted by parents. That became tarnished as the focus changed and now provides an environment that is said to be in conflict with the morality it once promoted.