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;...

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...

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....

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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!

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.

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...

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...

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

(Feb. 9) -- It's only been a year since a helicopter flew him out of the capital right after the inauguration of President Barack Obama. But some Americans will be pleased to know that George W. Bush is out there, watching over them after all. From a billboard, high above Interstate Highway 35 near Wyoming, Minn., to be exact. And he wants to know if you miss him. Someone has placed a giant photo of the former president on a billboard with the question, "Miss Me Yet?" Until now, the billboard was thought to be a hoax, a clever doctoring...

The leftist pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood has released a new report calling for children as young as ten years old to be given access to contraceptives and taught to be "sexual beings"...

Top congressional Republicans, emerging from a 90-minute meeting with President Obama that side-stepped health care reform, said they may boycott Feb. 25 talks on health care reform. "It's going to be very difficult to have bipartisan conversations with regard to a 2,700 page health care bill that the Democrat majority in the House and the Democrat majority in the Senate can’t pass," House Minority Leader John Boehner said. "Why are we going to talk about a bill that can’t pass? It really is time to scrap the bill and start over." For now, Boehner said House Republicans are only willing...

At his briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs mocked Sarah Palin by writing notes on his left hand.

Critics of Michael Steele's tenure as RNC chairman are motivated by racism, Steele suggested in an interview published today. Speaking to the Washingtonian Magazine (no online version), Steele wondered why his DNC counterpart doesn't get the same criticism he does. "I don’t see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation," Steele said. "Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?” The RNC has experienced significant staff turnover since Steele became chairman, especially in the communcations shop. That has prompted speculation about Steele's management...

Inflation Or Deflation, Which “ation” Is This? Economics / Economic Theory Feb 09, 2010 - 01:50 AM By: Graham Summers I’ve been receiving a number of emails lately asking me whether I am a deflationist or an inflationist. Just as often I am asked if we’re in a deflationary environment or inflationary environment. My answer to both questions is “yes.” Truthfully, most of the us would do better if we simply dropped the “it’s either that ” paradigm of thinking for investing. Case in point, one can easily argue that stocks are in a bear market rally. But then again,...

Obama: GOP and Dems Together Can Spur Job Growth CHARLES BABINGTON WASHINGTON – Appealing for bipartisanship in a town where it's hard to find, President Barack Obama sat down with Democrats and Republicans Tuesday to spur cooperation on job creation, deficit reduction and health care overhaul. He promised to do his part — but warned he would take Republicans to task if they don't do the same. "The people who sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics," Obama said afterward, making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. He started his remarks to...

Job openings fell by nearly one-quarter last year as layoffs also soared 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,...

Top military brass caving in after Obama declares support. Radical social agenda would bring terrible consequences. But Congress must change law before it happens. The change would be a crown jewel of the homosexual movement. By repealing this law, homosexuality would be officially recognized as normal. But more than that, it would be affirmed and even celebrated as it is in public schools, government and many corporations. There are few places in life where one individual holds such absolute power over another as in the military. Or where young men are forced to live in extremely close quarters day and...

Obama Has Miles To Go To Keep All Promises Elkhart sees some stimulus money, but job growth hasn't By Tom Curry National affairs writer msnbc.com Feb. 9, 2010 ELKHART, Ind. - If there were a report card for the promises President Barack Obama made a year ago in this struggling city in northern Indiana, he would probably get a C. It’s a passing grade, but it’s not the strong performance that people might have hoped for in a town with one of the highest jobless rates in the country. One year ago, on Feb. 9, 2009, Obama went to Concord...

Obama's Outreach to Iran Unprecedented, Gates Says The Obama White House has gone further than any administration to reach out to Iran, and is disappointed with the response, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday. The Islamic Republic announced Tuesday that it began enriching uranium to 20 percent purity level in defiance of world powers but under the supervision of inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iranian state media reported. Gates on Tuesday called the move "disappointing" and said Tehran is violating a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is refusing to sign off on an IAEA-brokered deal that would allow Tehran to...

Sen. Inhofe’s Family Builds Igloo for Global Warming Spokesman Al Gore in Snow-laden D.C. Tuesday, February 09, 2010 By Christopher Neefus (CNSNews.com) – The family of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) had some fun at former Vice President and global warming spokesman Al Gore’s expense over the weekend after record snowfall blanketed the nation’s capital. The family spent Saturday and Sunday building an igloo near the U.S. Capitol building, and the Oklahoma senator posted photos of their handiwork on his Facebook page. They added signs to the snow dwelling that read, “AL GORE’S NEW HOME!” and “HONK IF YOU (LOVE) GLOBAL...

EXCERPT Now, some critics are questioning whether using her own daughters as examples is fair to them. "Was it hurtful to her girls?" asked one blogger who focuses on Mommy issues. Psychology Today even questioned the first lady for using the word "chubby" to describe her daughters. While her heart is in the right place, Michelle may not have considered or been familiar with the delicate balance between preventing obesity and triggering eating disorders. She mentioned that she put her children on a diet after her pediatrician and their father felt they were getting “chubby.” Words like “chubby” don’t cause...

Making a surprise appearance in the briefing room, President Obama says his meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders went "well." "We all understand there are legitimate and genuine differences within the parties," he says, but the public demands that they come together on some issues. "I'm going to continue to seek the best ideas from either party." Obama says they spent "a lot of time" talking about a jobs package, but also discussed the deficit. And he says, contrary to what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner said at a stakeout, that they "touched briefly" on...

It's like a real life Robin Hood -- some schmuck in Finland robbed from the rich (a bank) and gave to the poor (itself) and did it all with a spring-loaded bow and arrow. And there's another catch: Cops are unsure if the suspect, who's still at large, is a man or a woman. Officials in Finland tell TMZ the suspect was dressed like a woman ... but spoke like a man.

...White criticized Perry by name or inference six times... ...(Shami) stumbled on the issue of voter identification, inaccurately saying the state requires a driver's license now to vote and he would not support changing the law. The issue that nearly shut down the Legislature last year was a battle over whether to require a photo identification to vote. White seized on the issue to make another attack on Perry, describing voter identification as a political wedge issue. “That is a classic illustration of where Governor Perry has brought the partisan politics of Washington to the statehouse,” White said. “Under both...

U.S. and allied commanders in Afghanistan are preparing for the biggest battle of the eight-year war, knowing that its outcome will reveal the chances of success for President Obama's revamped Afghan strategy. About 20,000 U.S., British and Afghan troops will soon storm Marja, the Taliban's final redoubt in the southern province of Helmand. A town of 80,000, Marja has for years been a den of narcotics traffickers and insurgents, serving as a launching pad for roadside bombs and suicide attacks. If the U.S. and its allies succeed in driving out the Taliban - and, perhaps more importantly, bring a measure...

Last week was the final straw for Bruce Bethke and his family. His wife, Karen, answered the phone, and it was a collections call from T-Mobile, demanding payment on the cell phone account of her stepdaughter, Emily Bethke. She burst into tears and told the agent what the family, in increasing irritation mixed with their sorrow, had been telling T-Mobile for months: Emily is dead.....

Right now Rush is talking about the billboard in Minnesota with a picture of George Bush smiling and asking : “Miss me yet?”. Everyone is asking “Where did this come from? And Whose great idea was this?” Jonathan Maney The Tee Shirt Guy that’s who! The phrase “Miss me yet?” with a picture of a smiling George Bush on the billboards in Indiana (a caller mentioned another billboard in Indiana) and Minnesota comes from a tee shirt he conceived and designed. I’m wearing one right now. I brought it with me on a cruise for conservative activists last month featuring...

Tea party-backed candidate Debra Medina is closing on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in Texas’s Republican gubernatorial primary, increasing the odds the race led by Gov. Rick Perry will be thrown into a runoff. According to a by Public Policy Polling, Medina, a nurse who’s now a businesswoman, had the support of 24 percent of likely Republican primary voters, trailing the three-term senator by only 4 percentage points. Perry, who’s leading Hutchison by double-digits in several polls, got 39 percent in the latest survey. If none of the candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the March 2...