Free Republic

In late December, we scored Joe Biden for putting his foot through the Administration's carefully designed Afghan diplomacy. The Vice President declared to much media fanfare on NBC's "Meet the Press" that U.S. troops would start leaving Afghanistan this summer and that "We're going to be totally out of there, come hell or high water, by 2014." We're happy to say the Veep seems to be coming around. This week on a visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr. Biden reversed himself in a way that deserves as much attention as his earlier blunder. "It is not our intention to govern...

Irvine consultant Joe Vranich, who has been compiling a list of companies leaving California because of the state’s anti-business environment, is now up to 144 companies that have departed in 2010, including 34 in Orange County. In addition, he lists 51 companies (8 from Orange County) that left in 2009. That three-fold increase, Vranich says, is the tip of the iceberg that is California’s financial woes. “Quite clearly, the exodus of businesses out of California continues. It makes sense for companies to reduce their California footprint considering the ample supply of attractive, lower-cost alternative locations. Unless California reduces its hostility...

But don't feel too bad. It's not you, it's me. Or rather, it's the TSA. I'm not going to lie. It's come between us. If I have to let someone else see me naked in order to be with you--well, I'm just not that kinky. And deep down, I don't think you are either. I think it's the TSA making you act like this. Frankly, you haven't been the same since you started running around together. But I can't put all the blame on them. I think you went along because you thought I had to have you--that I couldn't...

UPDATED STORY David Axelrod, a top advisor to President Obama and the main architect of his election victory in 2008, will be leaving the White House next year and returning to Chicago to work on the president's re-election campaign, a White House aide said Thursday. Axelrod has not specified a departure date, but he plans to remain in his current position "well into 2011,'' the aide said.

see ya..........

He includes 25 Orange County companies – including Kyjen Company (Huntington Beach to Centennial, Colo.) and MotorVac Technologies (Santa Ana to Ontario, Canada) – that have expanded outside California or moved completely. But he excludes companies like Irvine Scientific of Santa Ana, which is building a production facility in Japan, because it’s tied to a global expansion strategy, not California’s business environment. Here are the Orange County companies on Vranich’s list: * Bazz Houston Co., Garden Grove, moving jobs to Tijuana * CB Richard Ellis, Newport Beach, moved IT jobs to Texas * Ditech, Costa Mesa, moved most work and...

Half will be sent through Istanbul; Iranian MPs will fly to Gaza. Two Iranian cargoes of humanitarian aid for Gaza will leave next week and one of them will be shipped through Istanbul, the official Iranian news agency, IRNA reported Monday. The announcement quoted Mohammad Ali Nouraee, an aid official, who said one cargo will be sent to Turkey, and then shipped to Gaza from Istanbul while the other will leave from the port of Khorramshahr. Nouraee said that the ships would sail without protective security because the Iranians “do not want to fight", however he emphasized that "we are...

Breaking: News emerging that CNN's Campbell Brown will leave the network. Mediaite's Steve Krakauer reports that CNN has granted Brown's request to be let out of her contract early, and that Brown will remain as primetime anchor of her eponymous show until a replacement is found: A source with knowledge of the situation tells Mediaite Brown made the request months ago -- and before all the 'how to fix CNN' articles began rolling out. We hear she originally lobbied for the 7pmET opening, with the thinking the show would work better at an earlier hour (and without the Bill O'Reilly/Keith...

1/4/2010 - CAMP BUCCA, Iraq (AFNS) -- Following the deactivation of the 887th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, Airmen from the 820th Security Forces Group, Moody Air Force Base, Ga., finally said goodbye to their home away from home for the past three years. Since its introduction in March 2004 to its deactivation Dec. 3, 887th ESFS security forces Airmen have overcame adversity, adapted to an ever-changing mission and forged strong relationships with the Iraqi people. According to Staff Sgt. Charles Carpenter, 887th ESFS technologies NCO in charge, it was fitting that 822nd Security Forces Squadron was deployed to Camp Bucca...

A year ago, Maryland created a higher tax bracket for millionaires intended to help balance the state's finances and make the tax code more progressive. How is it working for them? In the last year the number of Marylanders with more than $1 million in taxable income who filed by the end of April has fallen by 1/3 to about 2,000. Taxes collected from those returns as of last month have declined by roughly $100 million. Increasing taxes on the rich has failed because the rich are mobile and can choose where they live. I am sure the states with...

As the debate over H-1B workers and skilled immigrants intensifies, we are losing sight of one important fact: The U.S. is no longer the only land of opportunity. If we don't want the immigrants who have fueled our innovation and economic growth, they now have options elsewhere. Immigrants are returning home in greater numbers. And new research shows they are returning to enjoy a better quality of life, better career prospects, and the comfort of being close to family and friends

DENVER – After going months without a full-time job, Daniel Ramirez has decided it's time to return to family in Mexico. Vicenta Rodriguez Lopez .. can't afford to live in Colorado any more because her husband was deported. Roberto Espinoza is going back, too. ...

CHICAGO (AP) — Treffly Coyne was out of her car for just minutes and no more than 10 yards away. But that was long and far enough to land her in court after a police officer spotted her sleeping 2-year-old daughter alone in the vehicle; Coyne had taken her two older daughters to pour $8.29 in coins into a Salvation Army kettle. Minutes later, she was under arrest — the focus of both a police investigation and a probe by the state's child welfare agency. Now the case that has become an Internet flash point for people who either blast...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri legislator was charged with a felony Thursday for allegedly driving away after hitting a pedestrian with his pickup truck. Authorities say state Rep. Brad Robinson was driving the truck that hit a 46-year-old man south of St. Louis in the early hours of New Year's Day. His wife, Tara, had told police she was driving, but authorities say a high school's surveillance camera captured the couple switching seats in the truck moments after the accident. The Democratic lawmaker from Bonne Terre was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and could get up...

I am leaving. Unless I don't. Then I will stay. But if I stay, I will not leave. Unless I left before I did that.

THE 7000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk have farewelled Sydney – and about $10 million of their money during their five day stay. Escorted by a flotilla of small boats, the Kitty Hawk left Sydney Harbour after five days docked at the Garden Island Naval Base. It is estimated the 7000 sailors spent $2 million a day during their visit to Sydney – or around $280 a crew member, a day. The sailors also engaged in various charitable works around the city, including a visit to sick children at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. This was probably...

For the first time in 30 years, United Van Lines Inc. says it moved more people out of Florida than in, and analysts see that as a sign that consumers are looking elsewhere for a cheaper slice of life. The nation's largest moving company reported 16,212 inbound shipments to Florida last year and 17,019 outbound shipments. United moved more people to Florida in each year from 1999 to 2004, but the number of inbound moves fell in 2005, spokeswoman Jennifer Bonham said.

After almost five years at the Star Tribune, our editor, Anders Gyllenhaal, has been called to a new challenge: to be the executive editor of the Miami Herald, another McClatchy newspaper and the paper where, earlier in his career, he earned a good many of his journalistic stripes. As Anders said in a note to the newsroom: "I want you to know this has been a very difficult decision that has kept me awake many nights. In the end, my family and I decided to take a kind of homecoming, returning to the place where Beverly and I met, where...

The Netherlands is the only country in Western Europe where emigrants outnumber immigrants. In 2005, an unprecedented 121 thousand persons left the country. Immigration totalled 92 thousand persons. Such a large negative net migration is found nowhere else in Europe.Emigrants outnumber immigrants since 2003 For decades, the number of people who came to settle in the Netherlands outnumbered those who were leaving the country permanently. This situation changed in 2003, when emigrants outnumbered immigrants for the first time.  There seems to be no end to the emigration increase in the foreseeable future. In the first quarter of 2006 29 thousand persons left...

Canton police aren’t sure why Qamara Biquis Muhammad’s little boys were left in her van for more than two hours. They’re not precisely sure where the mother of the 3- and 5-year-old children went in the hours before 2:30 a.m. July 10. And they’re not really sure why Muhammad had lost custody of the children, and how long ago the boys went to live with their grandmother. The children were placed in the care of a family member, and Muhammad, 24, of Ypsilanti was charged with two counts of second-degree child abuse, each a four-year felony, and two counts of...