Free Republic

Insurance companies say they were blindsided by Obama’s announcement that state insurance commissions and companies can decide whether or not to re-start plans they had canceled. NBC’s Tom Costello reports.

Today is a great day not only in Australian history, but also in world history. It marks the day when people of character and sensibility pushed back against an overwrought and pointless green agenda, and pushed back in a big way. They’ve had enough, and they’ve scraped the Krudd off their shoes and are moving forward. Tony Abbot has won the Australian election in a landslide, and vows to abolish the carbon tax as a first order of business. Abbott has declared Australia is “once more open for business” in claiming victory in Saturday’s election. It is a huge blow...

The first baby with three parents could be born as early as 2015 after a landmark decision to move ahead on a controversial genetic treatment. Britain could become the first country to sanction the creation of babies with three genetic parents, despite fears it might lead to ‘designer babies’. The Government will publish draft regulations later this year that will bring techniques a step closer to giving women affected by devastating hereditary diseases the chance to have healthy children. The techniques involve replacing defective DNA in the mother’s egg with material from a donor egg. The resulting healthy child would...

Totalitarian Subversion- Can we Awaken from the Nightmare? by LOYALTOLIBERTY on MAY 18, 2013 Whatever Obama, Hilary Clinton, Susan Rice and other Obama faction officials were seeking to achieve with their lies about the terrorist murders of U.S. officials in Benghazi; whatever the full extent of the ideologically motivated political abuses at the IRS, one thing is clear. Except for mindless apparatchiks, thoughtlessly loyal to the Obama cult, (like Chris Matthews and Al Sharpton, for example) no sane person can now consider it crazy or irrational to distrust the words and actions of those presently controlling the U.S. government. These...

The scandal engulfing two of our top military and intelligence officers could not be coming at a worse time: the Middle East has never been more unstable and closer to multiple, interconnected explosions. Virtually every American president since Dwight Eisenhower has had a Middle Eastern country that brought him grief. For Ike, it was Lebanon’s civil war and Israel’s Sinai invasion. For Lyndon Johnson, it was the 1967 Six-Day War. For Nixon, it was the 1973 war. For Carter, it was the Iranian Revolution. For Ronald Reagan, it was Lebanon. For George H.W. Bush, it was Iraq. For Bill Clinton,...

It's getting easy to overlook the tired rhetoric and hollow tension surrounding Iran, the U.S. and Israel. It's been months, and months since the back-and-forth began. First, Iran's shutting the Strait of Hormuz, then its saying it'd never shut the strait. Then Israel's planning a solo attack. No, they're not. It's frustrating, but that doesn't mean the situation couldn't turn ugly at the drop of a hat. Joby Warick at The Washington Post reports improved Iranian weapons and an enhanced plan of attack could nail the U.S. fleet parked in the Gulf and there may be little Navy officials can...

Excerpt from Steven Chu's April 23, 2007 presentation at UC Berkeley. See transcript here:

I live in California. If you were wondering what living in Obama's second term would be like, wonder no longer. We in California are living there now. California is a one-party state dominated by a virulent Democratic Left enabled by a complicit media where every agency of local, county, and state government is run by and for the public employee unions. The unemployment rate is 12%. California has more folks on food stamps than any other state, has added so many benefits and higher rates to Medicaid that we call it "Medi-Cal." Our K-12 schools have more administrators than teachers,...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

[...] And yet, here we are at the end of 2011, with Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and discussion boards still teeming with intemperate quick takes. President Obama has taken considerable heat this year, but isn't it too soon to accuse him of being an ineffectual leader? Isn't that one lesson from the Tucson incident? On a Christmas Day episode of "GPS" on CNN, Fareed Zakaria interviewed Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, who reminded us that it's too early to cast Obama's legacy in stone. Here's an excerpt from their interview: I admire him very much, and I think that his...

Dear Friend, In this video commentary, I discuss how Obama has to choose between alienating the greens or the unions. It could doom his re-election chances. Tune in to see why!

A recent vacation in Mexico turned into a nightmare for a 79-year-old Illinois man. But it wasn't a devastating bus crash that almost killed U.S.-born Alfonso Acosta. It was his stay in one of Mexico's government-run hospitals. According to a harrowing account in the Quad-City Times, a daily newspaper, Acosta suffered a "major head injury, multiple facial fractures, broken ribs and a punctured lung." Yet for five weeks he lay "virtually untreated" at the hospital where he was taken in Toluca, about 40 miles southwest from Mexico City, say outraged family members in the United States who rushed to his...

Sacramento -- California faces deep mid-year cuts to its universities, community colleges, social service programs and public schools - which may have their year shortened - because the state will collect billions in revenue less than expected, according to a report released today. The report by the Legislative Analyst's Office says the state faces a budget deficit in the current fiscal year largely because it will collect only $300 million of $4 billion that Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature added to the budget just days before it was approved in June. Critics had called the sudden infusion of projected...

Obama hit the links today for the 76th time. (WHD) — President Obama went golfing today, heading out for the 18th time this year and for the 76th time in his presidency, but for only the first time in seven weeks, having somehow not gotten a round in FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF JULY.

The blue chips nose-dived 513 points into correction territory, while the broad S&P 500 shed 4.8%, after anxiety over the economy sent traders racing out stocks and commodities. Today's Markets According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 513 points, or 4.3%, to 11,384, the S&P 500 tumbled 60.2 points, or 4.8%, to 1,200 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 137 points, or 5.1%, to 2,556. The FOX 50 tumbled 37.5 points, or 4.2%, to 864. Related Video Economic Concerns Drive GM Shares Down FOX Business Brief: GM and markets Related Stories For Stocks, 'This is Where it Gets...

Who needs Congressional authority when you can govern by executive fiat? “A new enforcement memo handed down by the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week has some accusing the White House of running around Congress to implement the DREAM Act – and consequent amnesty for some illegal immigrants – by executive fiat. The new memo, penned by ICE Director John Morton, directs ICE agents, attorneys and directors to exercise “prosecutorial discretion” – meaning less likelihood of deportation – for illegal aliens who have been students in the U.S., who have been in the country since childhood or...

The Obama Administration is handing out waivers far and wide for its health-care bill, but behind the scenes the bureaucracy is grinding ahead writing new regulations. The latest example is the rule for Accountable Care Organizations that are supposed to be the crown jewel of cost-saving reform. One problem: The draft rule is so awful that even the models for it say they won't participate. *** The theory for ACOs, as they're known, is that hospitals, primary-care doctors and specialists will work more efficiently in teams, like at the Mayo Clinic and other top U.S. hospitals. ACOs are meant to...

DREAM ACT: TELL CONGRESS TO HELP STUDENTS PURSUE HIGHER EDUCATION Each year, thousands of undocumented students who have lived in the United States for at least five years graduate from U.S. high schools. Among these students, with whom NEA members work every day, are valedictorians, straight-A students, and idealistic youth committed to bettering their communities. Yet, because of their lack of legal status, they are unable to pursue higher education. This week, Senator Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Berman (D-CA) reintroduced the bipartisan DREAM Act (S. 952/H.R. 1842). See if your Senator is a cosponsor. The House bill...

Lawmakers in Oregon, Washington, Montana and California set the table by establishing aggressive mandates for renewable power that "ratchet higher" over the next 15 years. Oregon's large utilities are required "mandated" at rate payer expense" to serve 5 percent of their demand with "renewable" this year, increasing to 25 percent by 2025. California's standard is 33 percent by 2020, and Washington's is 15 percent by 2020.