Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The burst of job growth in January gives President Obama a fresh — but tricky — opportunity to revise the grim economic narrative of his presidency while offering Mitt Romney a choice: embrace a new optimism or campaign against a sinking economy even as it shows signs of turning around. The Labor Department reported on Friday that the unemployment rate had fallen all the way back to the level of President Obama’s first full month in office, to 8.3 percent, from a high of 10 percent in late 2009. Yet unemployment also remains higher than it has been...

In a move that has attracted outrage from many local parents, an overzealous principal has accused a six-year-old of sexual assault. Levina Subrata’s son was playing tag in his Californian school playground when he was accused of touching his best friend’s upper thigh and groin.

We will risk the fairly safe assumption, as this is being written, that Air Force One did not make an appearance at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport sometime Thursday.... You almost have to laugh at this latest chapter in the seemingly endless “birther” saga, because about the only alternatives at this point are tears and/or nausea. It was embarrassing enough when members of the Georgia legislature -- including, to Columbus’ acute humiliation, two members of the local delegation -- drafted a “Presidential Eligibility Assurance Act” in the last legislative session. Now Georgians get to enjoy the added spectacle of their secretary...

The head of the world's biggest food company Nestle said on Friday that rising food prices have created conditions "similar" to 2008 when hunger riots took place in many countries. "The situation is similar (to 2008). This has become the new reality," the Swiss giant's chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe told the Salzburger Nachrichten daily in his native Austria in an interview. "We have reached a level of food prices that is substantially higher than before. It will likely settle down at this level. "If you live in a developing country and spend 80 percent of your income on food then of...

Following his blistering critique in last week’s debate in Iowa, former House speaker Newt Gingrich still thinks the newly established deficit “supercommittee” is one of the worst ideas ever conceived in Washington. In a speech at the Heritage Foundation today, the embattled presidential candidate put forward a host of ideas that he believes will yield far better results. “I’m going to say things that are very bold,” Gingrich warned the audience at the onset. “Boldness is sometimes exactly what we need.” Indeed, Gingrich went after what he described as Washington’s “intellectual” deficiencies, meaning the inability to embrace sweeping changes that...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Texas Gov. Rick Perry turned his rhetorical fire on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke here Monday night, saying that the chairman would be committing a “treasonous” act by ordering the printing of more money and said doing so would amount to a political decision to help President Obama win reelection in 2012. “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what you all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas,” he said of the possibility of another round of so-called quantitative...

Wednesday could be a volatile trading day as Wall Street gets a better understanding of the politics and outlook that’s rapidly evolving in our nation's capital. First and foremost, traders will be listening to Ben Bernanke as he delivers his semi-annual report to Congress. Sometimes called the Humphrey-Hawkins testimony, pros will be parsing over every word looking for clues about the economy and monetary policy and the potential for more stimulus. But, beyond that, they’ll also be listening to the questions asked by lawmakers looking for clues about the political psychology of DC and just how well lawmakers understand issues...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Beset by a weak jobs report, President Barack Obama on Friday called for swift action by Congress to raise the nation's borrowing limit, saying the uncertainty over the debt ceiling has hindered hiring in the private sector.

It's no wonder why anti-Masonic conspiracy theories fail to catch on: There is a long line of heroic, patriotic, Christian Freemasons in our national history. To assert that George Washington, Winston Churchill, Stephen Austin, Buzz Aldrin or Omar Bradley were part of a some Satanic conspiracy is to beggar credibility. At the same time, many evil organizations, from the K.K.K. to Aleister Crowley's pagan cult, borrowed heavily from freemasonry, employing its systems of graduated revelations, initiations, and secret recognitions to infiltrate and pervert other organizations. These organizations can fairly be said to be perversions and usurpers of freemasonry, not freemasonry...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday that a "significant" deal with Republicans on cutting government spending and raising the nation's debt limit is still possible, even as the administration hardened its stance on the need for increased tax revenue to be part of any agreement. President Barack Obama made his first direct foray into the deficit negotiations Monday. He met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Oval Office for about 30 minutes Monday morning, and planned to meet with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the early evening. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama's meeting with...

Talking Points: 6/9 Video

Amid questions about the authenticity of Obama's posted birth records raised by the registration number, a researcher has discovered a possible explanation. The Post and Email blog, which has focused on the Obama eligibility controversy, features a report by an unnamed researcher who discovered the record of a girl born the same day as the president who died a day later that could have been the source of Obama's birth certificate. The find is significant because of questions about the plausibility of the registration number indicated on the images of short-form and long-form birth certificates for the president posted on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A North Carolina man was convicted for creating and distributing a counterfeit currency that was very similar to the real dollar, a U.S. Attorney said....posted using frpa

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T PREDICT EARTHQUAKES ACCURATELY? Geologist: Alarming magnetic field changes signal major quake for West Coast

More and more people, across the political spectrum, are calling for some level of US military intervention in Libya. President Obama even left the door open with his cryptic "all options" comment. We cannot, we must not get involved militarily in Libya or any other nation that is not a direct threat to us. Just say no!

Teaching, Preaching, Healing     By Elder Jeffrey R. HollandOf the Quorum of the Twelve ApostlesJeffrey R. Holland, "Teaching, Preaching, Healing", Ensign, Jan. 2003, 33  Adapted from an address given at a Church Educational System religious educators conference at Brigham Young University on 8 August 2000.   We quickly and rightfully think of Christ as a teacher—the greatest teacher who ever lived or ever will live. The New Testament is full of His teachings, His sayings, His sermons, His parables. One way or another, He is a teacher on every page of that book. But even as He taught, He was consciously doing something...

Diesel emissions cut by 70+ percent A new study sponsored by the CA Air Resources Board reveals definitively that clean “hybrid” technology can be used as successfully for tugboats as it has been for cars, buses and trucks. Thanks to research funded by ARB and conducted by UC Riverside, we now know that when compared with their diesel powered cohorts, a hybrid tugboat can reduce emissions of soot by about by 73 percent, oxides of nitrogen (which helps cause smog) by 51 percent, and carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, by 27 percent. The findings are significant due to...

If we are to believe the wisdom received by early medieval (southern) European scholars, the northernmost parts of the continent prior and after the fall of the Roman Empire was not only cold, barbaric and uninviting. It also was inferior. Pretty much like people of today not having visited Scandinavia and Finland would describe it. In fact, certain Romans and Arabs did actually pay visits to frozen, godforsaken "Thule". What did they meet with? Although they were not all that impressed with certain aspects of Nordic culture, like eating habits, they understood the Vikings had developed forging, warrior code and...

The corn market’s rally above $5 a bushel this fall has stirred growing consternation among livestock producers and others dependent on the largest U.S. crop. As the global grain supply outlook tightens, some traders in Chicago are placing bets that prices may double next year. Over the past week, trading firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and MF Global Holdings Ltd. bought call option contracts that would pay off if corn rose above $10 or $11 a bushel next spring. The options are traded at Chicago-based CME Group, along with futures based on grain, cattle, hogs and other commodities. It’s...

(Reuters) - People will have to cut meat from their diets if the world is to stay within safer limits of planet-warming greenhouse gases, nitrate pollution and habitat destruction, according to a journal article published on Monday.