Free Republic

Foothill areas north of Los Angeles are under a flash flood watch as another winter storm approaches, threatening burn areas with more mudslides and prompting mandatory evacuations for hundreds of homes. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to drop between 1/3 of an inch to 2 inches of rain starting Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night, said forecasters with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Though the storm will be patchy and "showery," forecasters said it could dump more than a half-inch of rain an hour in some areas. Los Angeles County authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders Monday night for more than...

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but someone has to do it. The “Miss Me Yet?” billboard (inspired by Jonathan Maney’s t-shirts) is cute. But let’s not get carried away with nostalgia. President Bush put America on the proper war footing after 9/11 and deserves much credit for doing so, but he also: 1) joined with open-borders progressives McCain and Kennedy to try to force shamnesty down our throats; 2) massively expanded the federal role in education; 3) championed the Medicare prescription drug entitlement using phony math; 4) kowtowed to the jihadi-enabling Saudis; 5) stocked DHS with incompetents and cronies;...

VA-ALERT: Urgent Legislative Alert, Action Items! 1. Gun bills to be heard in Senate Courts of Justice full committee tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10th, INCLUDING A RESTAURANT BAN REPEAL BILL! 2. Restaurant Ban Repeal vote in House Militia, Police and Public Safety committee this morning - good news! Action Item. ********************************************************************* 1. Gun bills to be heard in Senate Courts of Justice full committee tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10th, INCLUDING A RESTAURANT BAN REPEAL BILL! Tomorrow is going to be a KEY day for the restaurant ban repeal, the anti-freedom "gun show loophole" bill, and other important gun bills - so we...

The Public Employment Centre has been sentenced to pay 60 000 SEK to a Muslim man. The reason is that they have denied him his regular unemployment benefits after he refused to shake hand with a woman at his presumptive trainee-job. In 2006, the 24 year old Alen Malik Crnalic applied for a trainee-place as welder at a company in Älmhult, south Sweden. But during the work interview, he refused to shake hands with the female CEO. As an active Muslim, Malik Crnalik is not allowed to touch women outside his family. Instead he greeted through placing his right hand...

Italy said dozens of members of Iran's hardline religious Basij militia had tried to attack its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, but Iranian media described the incident as a student protest and did not mention any violence. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told a Senate hearing: "About a hundred Basij dressed as civilians tried to assault the embassy shouting 'Death to Italy' and 'Death to (Prime Minister) Berlusconi'."

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iran began enriching uranium Tuesday to the threshold at which it could set off a nuclear reaction, following through on a warning it had issued a day before, state media said. The enrichment was taking place at its Natanz facility under the surveillance of U.N. nuclear watchdog inspectors, Tehran said. An official with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a team of inspectors was on site. The United States and its allies fear Iran intends to build a nuclear bomb, while Tehran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy and medical use. On Monday,...

If the Republican Party wins every Senate seat in which it now holds a lead, according to Rasmussen’s polls, it will capture eight Democratic seats while holding all of its own. The two remaining pickups, to assure control, could be in Indiana, where former Sen. Dan Coats may run against Sen. Evan Bayh, and in California. Even if Coats does not run, former Congressman John Hostettler is behind Bayh by only 44-41 percent. And, in California, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is only 3 points behind Sen. Barbara Boxer. (This assumes that former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson takes on Sen....

Sorry to be so very late, had very important business trips, also had to get ready for winter storm tomorrow.

I was totally thrilled and grateful to receive a press pass from the Perry campaign for the Governor's Super Sunday event February 7th in Cypress, TX, featuring the inimitable Sarah Palin. It was like attending a rock concert what with the thousands in a line that wrapped around the huge Berry Center, Ted Nugent performing the anthem, and the press's flashbulbs everywhere. Sarah Palin did not disappoint and not only thrilled the crowd but did it in a kickin' pair of boots. (That's my girl.) Perry ended it by awarding Palin honorary Texan status... which makes perfect sense. Video...

President Obama to GOP: Work with me President Barack Obama said Tuesday he’s prepared to cut deals with Republicans in order to create jobs and improve the nation’s health care system, but he said he’s seen few signs so far that the GOP is willing to support any of his policy initiatives. “I’m willing to move off of some of the preferences of my party in order to meet them halfway, but there’s got to be some give from their side as well,” Obama said during a surprise visit to the White House briefing room following a meeting with congressional...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks, ilks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread.

Liberal host Ed Schultz tried to paint the entire Republican argument as “political posturing” and challenged Rivkin, saying he was pitting his credibility against the word of Brennan. But Rivkin remained adamant that officials would not have simply assumed Miranda rights were being given automatically. Rivkin also pointed out that there should be less blame cast by both sides and more attention to the underlying failures in common sense procedure. “We’re talking about somebody who is interrogated for 50 minutes, that interrogation was interrupted and he is Mirandized. I don’t know of any serious interrogator who does not believe that...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level on Tuesday over the vociferous objections of the U.S. and its allies who fear the process could eventually be used to give the Islamic republic nuclear weapons. Even before the announcement U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believed the U.N. should slap new sanctions on Iran in "weeks, not months," according to his spokesman Tuesday. France and the U.S. said Monday Iran's action left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear defiance. Russia, which has close...

BBC Ex-USSR: Iran aiming to provoke regional military conflict - Russian exper 91) ☆ By enriching uranium to a higher grade, Iran is embarking on a deliberate course of provoking a military conflict in the Middle East due to its unstable domestic situation, Aleksey Arbatov, head of the International Security Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said in a live interview to Russian Defence Ministry-controlled Zvezda TV on 9 February. He also said that Tehran will suddenly announce it has developed a nuclear weapon, and noted that 20 per cent-grade uranium was...

Democratic leaders are pushing a sweeping jobs bill to the Senate floor, but they have yet to forge a bipartisan deal on the Obama administration's new top priority. A draft of the roughly $80 billion bill, obtained by POLITICO, has a wide range of tax credits and job creation ideas, but it also includes provisions unrelated to jobs, including a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, infusion of new money to the Highway Trust Fund, and extension of the so-called “doc fix.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said drafting of the bill had been completed Tuesday afternoon, and he threatened to...

Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican, will stop blocking Senate confirmation of about 70 government appointees nominated by President Obama, his office said. Mr. Shelby had placed "holds" on most of Mr. Obama's nominees, delaying the Senate from acting on them, in a dispute over federal spending involving his state. "The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House's attention on two issues that are critical to our national security -- the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI's Terrorist Device Analytical Center," Shelby spokesman Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement Monday night.

The Department of Health Care Services said Monday it has breached the privacy of 49,352 people who receive adult day-care services from the state. The department said that letters it mailed a week ago to 49,352 Medi-Cal beneficiaries wrongly included each patient's Social Security number on their address labels. The department said the security incident took place Feb. 1, but it was only told about it on Thursday. It started to notify the 49,352 beneficiaries about the problem over the weekend.

Germany is preparing to drop its vehement opposition to a rescue package for Greece, fearing that a rapid escalation of the debt crisis in Southern Europe could endanger German banks and damage the euro. Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, has asked officials to prepare a plan in time for a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, according to reports in the German media. The options include either a loan from EU states or some sort of institutional EU response. The news pushed the euro to $1.38 against the dollar, the strongest one-day rally since the single currency began its nose-dive...

The case of Martin Grossman is gaining national attention. Grossman, in 1984 was a 19-year-old drug-addicted high-school drop-out with a juvenile record for trespassing. He and a friend, Thanye Taylor, drove to an isolated nature reserve to fire a found handgun. A wildlife officer stopped them, searched their car and confiscated the gun. Martin,who is reported to have an IQ of 77, panicked and began pleading with the officer not to report him as he would be in violation of his probation. When she reached for her radio a struggle ensued, which resulted in the officer reaching for her own...

It may be freezing cold in Washington tonight, but there are plans for a hot time at the White House. With a new snowstorm moving into the D.C. metro area, the president and first lady decided to move up a major music event that was actually scheduled for tomorrow evening. They’ll take the chill off invited guests with some warm music memories from the civil rights era, served up by some of America’s greatest talent. The 2010 White House Music Series kicks off tonight with a star-studden lineup, including Yolanda Adams, Joan Baez, Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John...

TYLER, Texas (AP) - Recent fires that destroyed or damaged several churches in eastern Texas were likely set by an individual or a group of people, federal authorities said Tuesday. Fires that broke out at two churches near Tyler on Monday have not yet been ruled arson, but authorities are investigating them as such. They were reported within an hour of one another and there were signs that at least one of the churches had been broken into. Since Jan. 1, eight churches—seven in eastern Texas and one in the central part of the state—have been set ablaze deliberately, authorities...

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Tuesday used the D.C. snowstorm to make a political jab, saying that it provides evidence for global warming skeptics. The conservative senator took to Twitter on Tuesday amid reports that the area is due to receive another 10 to 20 inches of snow this week: It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries "uncle" Some conservatives have echoed DeMint's sentiments that the snowstorm should poke holes in evidence backing global warming. DeMint took direct aim at the former vice president, who is one of the foremost proponents of government action to counter...

In a dead-in-the-water economy, the best strategy for getting or preserving a job is to convince your employer you are a profitable presence: You bring in more money than it costs him to employ you. That's why Pratt & Whitney's Machinists union brings up at every opportunity the long-term profitability of the Cheshire Engine Plant, the larger of the manufacturing facilities in Cheshire and East Hartford the company wants to close at the end of the year. Then the politicians and judges elbowed the workers aside and spouted nonsense. If Connecticut is lucky, the price won't be too much higher...

Angela McGlawon is a big friggin GUN GRABBER!!!! Listen to Angela, in her own words - youtube

John H. McWhorterToward a Usable Black History It will help black Americans to recall that they have a history that transcends victimization and exclusion. Summer 2001 You brought me here in CHAINS! You brought me here in CHAINS!" James Baldwin exclaimed to a white interviewer in the late 1960s, summing up the sense of our history that most blacks have. Yes, we pay lip service to our having "survived" in this country, but the image most resonant to us is being brought here packed in ships, treated like animals for 250 years, and pushed to the margins of society...

Coach Inc. (COH) is opening its first men's-only store as the retailer moves to extend its reach beyond traditional female customers. The store will be on trendy Bleecker Street in New York City's West Village, taking over space that was occupied by a Ruehl boutique that was closed as Abercrombie & Fitch Inc. (ANF) shuttered the concept last year. Coach, known for its leather handbags and accessories for women, wants to explore "a broader men's opportunity for the brand globally," said Mike Tucci, Coach's president of North America retail. Coach is also opening a few men's shops in department stores...

I recently switched from IE6 to Firefox and now have a glitch which is rather annoying. I enter a reply message on a thread and click preview. I then get an error message stating FireFox could not find the link I was connecting to (there is no link in the message) or I was not logged on. I back arrow to the screen with the message entry and click preview again. This time it works and I am able to post the message. Any suggestions or hints on how to correct this problem will be greatly appreciated. Mike

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health, is giving Dr. Lynn Fiellin, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, $3.9 million over five years to develop a video game to teach “sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills" to children 9-14 years of age. The game will feature “virtual characters or avatars” that are guided by the children playing the game to make decisions about whether to engage in behaviors that put them at risk of being infected with HIV. The game’s effectiveness...

Area firefighters from multiple departments were scrambling to respond to at least two church fires within three miles of each other in Smith County on Monday night — the latest in a rash of East Texas church fires, many of which have been ruled arsons. Firefighters first responded to a fire at Dover Baptist Church, 21166 Farm-to-Market Road 1995, near the intersection with Texas Highway 110 North, where flames were tearing through the roof about 20 minutes after the first witnesses spotted it. Firefighters from various departments including Lindale, Van, Dixie, Winona and Red Springs were on the scene. A...

Legal aid bosses have seized the house belonging to radical cleric Abu Hamza to pay off some of his defence costs. The Legal Services Commission appropriated the property in Greenford, west London, despite Hamza claiming it did not belong to him. It will now be sold in an attempt to pay off some of the £300,000 of taxpayers' money spent on his legal bills. Officials hope to raise £280,000 from the sale. Hook-handed Hamza, 51, is in jail as he attempts to fight extradition to the U.S. on terror charges at the European Court of Human Rights. He is also...

Cantor: Health-Care Summit Is On   [Daniel Foster] House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.) told Fox News that, their objections notwithstanding, Republicans will definitely be attending the health-care summit the president will host at Blair House later this month:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF8E7kmIVs4&feature=player_embedded (h/t Plum Line)02/09 03:04 PMShare

Defending ‘Don’t Ask’In the military, open homosexuality harms unit cohesion.  In a February 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed, I argued that the current law forbidding homosexual military members to discuss their sexual orientation ought to remain in place. I based my contention on the importance of non-sexual bonding as the glue of unit cohesion, which is an important contributor to military effectiveness. As expected, I received a great deal of feedback, some positive, some negative. I thought it might be useful to respond to my critics’ most common objections. First, some argued that the studies indicating the importance of cohesion...

The doomsday scenario we've feared since World War II has arrived. In response to the United States' latest arms sale to Taiwan, the Chinese military has suggested that China sell off some of the U.S. debt it owns to give the U.S. an economic punch of sorts. Reuters: Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at...

President Obama said Tuesday that he's "bent over backwards" to engage Iran in "constructive" dialogue and said the U.S. will move to sanction the country, which has begun enriching uranium to levels capable of making an atomic bomb. Obama told reporters during a rare press conference Tuesday that the U.S. is developing a "significant regime of sanctions" in response to the Islamic Republic's move to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity level in defiance of world powers. "That indicates to us that despite their posturing that their nuclear power is only for, for civilian use that they in fact continue...

Doesn't look like it's going so well: WASHINGTON - Finding a job got much tougher last year, as the number of available openings fell by nearly one quarter. At the same time, the unemployed population soared by more than one-third, leaving more laid-off workers competing for fewer jobs. All told, there were 6.1 unemployed workers in December, on average, for every available position, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. That’s a sharp increase from 3.4 jobless workers per opening in December of 2008, and much worse than the 1.7 unemployed people per opening in December 2007, when the recession...

As Washington digs itself out from under the Snowpocalypse, the region braces for yet more flurries. At least 18 inches of snow lie on the ground at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and some places were blanketed under as much as three feet. More arctic blasts this week could drive 2010 into the history books as the capital's snowiest winter ever.

FRiends, I almost posted this last night...but since that giant walking wanker Robert Gibbs pulled his little stunt today, I thought we ought to take it a step further. Here is my hand today: I may change it tonight or tomorrow or some time in the future, but I would suggest we all put some messages on our hands...at least for a little while. Some conversation might be generated, and you might find more people agree with you than you think! :)POST your pics to this thread, and let's have fun!

Although our current projection continues to show that the Democrats will retain control of the U.S. Senate (52-48), we have now downgraded their chances in the following three states: Connecticut (D-Dodd, retiring) Washington (D-Murray) Wisconsin (D-Feingold) Each race has moved from DEM HOLD to LEAN DEM HOLD.

Berkeley's $144 million budget is in the trash can - literally. In a $10 million deficit announced last week, the single biggest factor - $4 million - was a decline in its refuse revenues. The city says, in part, that it's a victim of its own success. Residents pride themselves on aggressively recycling and composting, so they're switching to smaller, cheaper trash cans - the only collection for which the city charges. "The whole business model for recycling and garbage has been to incentivize recycling," said Andrew Clough, the city's deputy director of public works. "We're going to have to...

FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR ORANGE COUNTY...THE INLAND EMPIRE...ANDTHE SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS BELOW 5000 FEET THROUGH TONIGHT... .A COLD...COMPACT LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL TRACK SOUTHWARD JUST OFFTHE CALIFORNIA COAST TODAY...MOVING INLAND ACROSS NORTHERN BAJATONIGHT. THIS WILL BRING PERIODS OF LOCALLY MODERATE PRECIPITATIONTHROUGH TONIGHT WITH PERIODS OF HIGH INTENSITY RAINFALL FROMTHUNDERSTORMS AND HEAVIER SHOWERS POSSIBLE LATE THIS AFTERNOONTHROUGH TONIGHT.**************************************** PERIODS OF MODERATE RAINFALL ARE EXPECTED THROUGH TONIGHT ON TOP OF SOIL NEARLY SATURATED FROM RECENT RAINFALL. PERIODS OF HIGH INTENSITY RAINFALL LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT FROM THUNDERSTORMS AND HEAVIER SHOWERS COULD INCREASE THE POTENTIAL FOR FLASH FLOODING.

A senior Amnesty International official has been suspended after attacking the human rights charity for allying itself with 'Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban'. Gita Sahgal, head of the organisation's gender unit, branded Amnesty's links to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg a 'gross error of judgment'. She was removed from her post within a few hours of her criticism...and now a bitter war of words is raging between the activist and her employer. Both have angrily defended their position over Mr Begg, 42, a Briton held at Guantanamo for three years until 2005 because of suspected links to...

Subject: Great Orators of the Democrat Party IN YEARS GONE BY: 'One man with courage makes a majority.' - Andrew Jackson 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' - Franklin D. Roosevelt 'The buck stops here.' - Harry S. Truman 'Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.' - John F. Kennedy NOW: And from today's Genius Democrats.............. 'It depends what your definition of 'is' is?'' - Bill Clinton 'That Obama - I would like to cut his NUTS off.' - Jesse Jackson 'Those rumors are false .......

During World War II in the Pacific, many native tribes were astounded by their first contact with an advanced technological civilization, when the Americans would come in, clear a strip in the jungle, set up a control tower and loud giant silver birds would appear from the sky bearing canned food, trinkets, fuel and other supplies. After the war, the Americans went away for the most part, but the memories remained. Many of the natives, changed forever by the experience, decided to replicate it. They cleared their own strips, built control towers of thatch and palm, and waited for the...

REYNOSA — At least six people were killed amid a barrage of grenade blasts and gunfire in a residential neighborhood on the city’s southwest fringe early Monday morning, officials said. The bloody confrontation between Mexican army soldiers and an unidentified criminal group broke out about midnight Sunday, local officials confirmed. Three army soldiers and three civilians involved in the attack died during the shootout. Four soldiers suffered injuries, as well. Authorities detained about 10 people after the attack. A van loaded with marijuana was also reportedly seized by authorities. Officials said the attack involved a well-armed group that sprayed gunfire...

WASHINGTON - As the region braces for another major storm, one local government is having trouble keeping their plows on the roads, WTOP has learned. As many as 60 of the District's snow plows are not working -- bad news for thousands of residents still waiting for their streets to be cleared. According to an internal email obtained by WTOP, 25 percent of the District's snow plow fleet is down and they're having trouble getting replacement parts. D.C. is also now rationing their salt supply. The email states they'll have enough to get through the upcoming storm. DDOT has 9,000...

Sarah Palin will be in Orlando March 12 for a special speech. This is the date when the 2010 campaigns will begin in earnest, so it will be great, and a very big deal. Am arranging a special section for FReepers. A special two night discounted hotel package will be avaiable for FReepers only on that weekend. Remember, it's warm and no snow in Orlando. Watch FR for details and discounted hotel/travel/tickets.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will introduce a jobs bill on Tuesday that he said would have Republican support. Reid told reporters the bill would be introduced on Tuesday, and that it would include an extension of the tax breaks, known as tax extenders, that expired last year. “As of last night, there will be Republican support for this bill,” Reid told reporters. He added that he doesn’t foresee changes to the bill that would cause it to lose Republican support. Reid also said the jobs bill would include a renewal of the highway trust fund through December. Sen....

Rumour of Day (Week? Month?) — Rafsanjani “Ultimatum” to Supreme Leader. The Green site Rah-e-Sabz, without citing a source, makes the following claim: Authorities went to arrest the wife of Mir Hossein’s chief advisor Alireza Beheshti, who was already detained, on Tuesday, but could not find her. She then called Hashemi Rafsanjani from her hiding place and told him, “Look where we have got to that the grandchildren of Shahid Beheshti have to be on the run in dahey-e fajr (the 10-Day Dawn preceding the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution).” This allegedly upset Rafsanjani to the point to tears. During...

Imagine if you could get full salary and benefits for a decent paying job and you didn’t have to work to get it. All you had to do was be accused of a crime. What crime, you ask? How about molesting school kids? That’s what the teachers‘ unions in states like California and New York State are doing: coddling accused criminals — at your expense. And it’s probably going on elsewhere as well. Believe it or not, New York is a lot tougher on them than California. From the New York Post: "At the beginning of his 32-year career as...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security improperly conducted a threat assessment of Wisconsin pro- and anti-abortion rights groups before an expected rally last year. The department said in a memo released last year that it destroyed or deleted all of the copies of the assessment after an internal review found it violated intelligence gathering guidelines about "protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security." The assessment was shared only with the director of Wisconsin's intelligence-sharing center and police in Middleton, where the rally was expected to take place. The report was compiled prior to a February 2009 meeting in