Free Republic

President likes to refer to us as grown children and is quick to boast that because of his ObamaCare plan we can stay on our parents’ health insurance plans until we’re 26. But this is a generation that remembers typing papers on word processors and tearing the edges off dot matrix paper. We weren’t the first on the information super highway but once we got a license, we took over the road. Facebook has tracked every day of our lives since college and Twitter turned us into citizen reporters. We also have degrees – some of us multiple degrees- but...

**SNIP** It said that the CBO summary instead showed that some who stay in low paid jobs or put off retirement to keep health insurance plans linked to employers would no longer have to under Obamacare and could chose to leave the work force or toil for fewer hours. "Claims that the Affordable Care Act hurts jobs are simply belied by the facts in the CBO report," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement, which appeared just before the White House conducted a hurriedly organized call for reporters. "Since the Affordable Care Act passed into law in March...

Review of the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi Libya , September 11-12 , 2012 , together with additional views . January 15th , 2014

Although in recent decades women have made historic advances in nearly all areas of American public life, a staggering number of women across the country are still teetering on the verge of poverty and economic disaster, a new report released Sunday shows. The report, co-authored by NBC News special anchor Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, takes a wide-angle snapshot of a national economic crisis — seen through the eyes of women. The key findings paint a portrait of an estimated 42 million women — and 28 million dependent children — saddled with financial hardship. "These are not...

**SNIP** But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks. “It was a coordinated attack. It is completely false to say anything else. … It is completely a lie,” one witness to the attack told Fox News. The controversial Times report has stirred a...

Report and recommendations of the president’s review group on intelligence and communications technologies

Fewer than 50,000 people have successfully purchased private healthcare coverage using the struggling ObamaCare enrollment site, according to a report. The figure represents about one-tenth of an initial enrollment target from the Obama administration that has been cited by Republican lawmakers. The report by the Wall Street Journal, citing two people familiar with the matter, comes as federal health officials prepare to release official sign-up figures from healthcare.gov for the first time later this week. The administration has sought to lower expectations about the number, citing problems with HealthCare.gov and consumers' tendency to purchase health coverage close to deadlines. Health...

Global emissions of carbon dioxide may be showing the first signs of a "permanent slowdown" in the rate of increase. According to a new report, emissions in 2012 increased at less than half the average over the past decade. Key factors included the shift to shale gas for energy in the US while China increased its use of hydropower by 23%. However the use of cheap coal continues to be an issue, with UK consumption up by almost a quarter. The report on trends in global emissions has been produced annually by the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency and the European...

<p>Here’s a sobering thought for you. A global wine shortage may be around the corner.</p> <p>According to a report released this week by Morgan Stanley Research, there was a global undersupply of about 300 million cases of wine in 2012, the largest deficit recorded in almost 50 years.</p>

Before the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, President Obama promised Americans they could keep their healthcare plan if they liked it. But already hundreds of thousands of citizens are receiving notification that their plans are being cancelled because they don't comply with the new law, and, according to NBC News, the Obama administration has known for at least three years the cancellations were coming. While campaigning for health care reform in 2009, Obama went out of his way to make one thing perfectly clear: if you like your current health care plan, you will be able to keep...

Piers Morgan used a fake news site to mock Sarah Palin on Twitter on Thursday. He linked to the satirical news site The Daily Currant saying that Palin claimed Jesus celebrated Easter. "And she's back!" Morgan gloated, with absolutely no mention that the article was fake. When critics told him the website was satire, Morgan answered that he knew it was. Yet he praised the notion that it was believable. "That's the beauty of it," Morgan wrote when someone tweeted that it was "hilarious even if its fake. Why? I believed it." That wasn't the first time Morgan has derided...

LUXEMBOURG: France called in the US ambassador on Monday to protest at allegations in Le Monde newspaper about large-scale spying on French citizens by the US National Security Agency, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said. "I have immediately summoned the US ambassador and he will be received this morning at the Quai d'Orsay (the French Foreign Ministry)," Fabius told reporters at a European Union foreign ministers' meeeting in Luxembourg.

Regardless of whether a person was targeted by the National Security Agency, the agency has been storing the online metadata “of millions of internet users for up to a year,” The Guardian reports. While the Obama administration has made statements that the NSA’s surveillance program only targets individuals connected with foreign intelligence or terrorism, top secret documents revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden demonstrate the contrary. The NSA retains “vast amounts of metadata” that allow analysts to put together a full picture of a year of a person’s life, reports The Guardian. Metadata, or data about data, includes phone...

A leaked report by the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office that wasn’t set to be released until next month claims budget cuts led to lax security at the D.C. naval yard. Time Magazine published leaked excerpts of the report. Daily Mail reported: Budget cuts may have been the cause for lax security at the Washington D.C. Navy Yards where 12 people were shot dead and eight others were injured on Monday morning. A yet-to-be-released government audit reveals that federal oversight investigators concluded that the reduced security measures at the base left security risks unaddressed. A report by the Department...

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The Lake Mary Police Department held a news conference Wednesday about the domestic incident between George Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie Zimmerman. Police released the incident report Wednesday afternoon. Police said that no domestic violence charges will be filed against George or Shellie Zimmerman anytime soon, if ever. They said the iPad evidence was nearly destroyed. "The iPad is in really bad shape. Don't have tools to look at video on the iPad. It could take months or weeks to get video off iPad," said Zach Hudson of the Lake Mary Police Department.

OTTAWA--Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told U.S. President Barack Obama that he's ready to work on joint plan between the two countries to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector in an effort to secure approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday. The CBC, citing unnamed sources, said Mr. Harper wrote to Mr. Obama in late August, signaling he is ready to accept carbon-reduction targets proposed by the U.S. and prepared to work with the White House to address concerns raised about Keystone and its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions. A spokesman for Mr....

The U.S. Department of State has known for decades that inadequate security at embassies and consulates worldwide could lead to tragedy, but senior officials ignored the warnings and left some of America's most dangerous diplomatic posts vulnerable to attack, according to an internal government report obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit. The report by an independent panel of five security and intelligence experts describes how the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, which left Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead, exploited the State Department's failure to address serious security concerns...

President Obama is considering a strike on Syrian military targets involving sea-launched cruise missiles or possibly long-range bombers that would last no more than two days, according to senior administration officials and reported by Karen DeYoung and Anne Gearan of The Washington Post. Reuters reports that the West has told the opposition to expect a strike "within days." The limited strike would seemingly be a response to allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people before dawn on August 21. Hundreds were killed and thousands suffered "neurotoxic symptoms." The design of the potential attack implies sending...

AFP - Al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on Europe's high-speed rail network, German mass circulation daily Bild reported on Monday, citing intelligence sources. The extremist group could plant explosives on trains and tunnels or sabotage tracks and electrical cabling, said Bild, Europe's most widely read daily. Bild said the information came from the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States, which had listened in to a conference call involving top Al-Qaeda operatives. The attacks on Europe's rail network was a "central topic" of this call, Bild said.

SINGAPORE, Aug 3 — Malaysia has finalised its full report on the proposed high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Local television Channel NewsAsia reported Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal, chief executive officer of the Malaysia Land Public Transport Commission, as saying that the two sides will meet after the Aidil Fitri celebrations at the end of the month. He said: “The base line alignment and all that is done. But of course, minor changes can still happen. We are just starting the process of engagement and discussion with the Singapore side, with the joint ministerial committee meeting up...