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Here is an example of why hiring illegal aliens is not economically productive for the State of California... You have 2 families..."Joe Legal" and "Jose Illegal". Both families have 2 parents, 2 children and live in California . "Joe Legal" works in construction, has a Social Security Number, and makes $25.00 per hour with payroll taxes deducted...."Jose Illegal" also works in construction, has "NO" Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash "under the table". Joe Legal...$25.00 per hour x 40 hours $1000.00 per week, $52,000 per year Now take 30% away for state federal tax Joe Legal now has...

Rather than absolving him of his sins, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s pseudo-mea culpa, “In Retrospect: Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,” is a self-indictment. His lesser crime is self-indulgence. His arrogance and duplicity during the Vietnam conflict is echoed throughout his book as he recounts his mismanagement of the war. If as he admits, ignorance was his guiding light, then, it has grown to be a beacon today, proving that he has learned little about Vietnamese communism in the almost three decades that it took him to write his book. Besides the war, another tragedy is that McNamara seems...

The airline Yemenia has said it may reconsider an order for 10 Airbus A350s because it has received "no support" from the manufacturer. Yemenia chairman Abdul Khaleq al-Qadi said Airbus had jumped to conclusions after the crash of a Yemenia plane off the Comoros Islands last week. Without any proof, he said, Airbus had told the media the crash was the result of technical problems.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The latest polling looks great for President Obama: It shows that Americans love national health care. If history and polling trends are any guide, however, that will change. Voters right now are in what the famous pollster Daniel Yankelovich called the Wishful Thinking stage -- a moment in the life of an opinion analogous to the dreamy early days of a relationship. Yankelovich believed opinion evolved through seven stages: Dawning Awareness, Greater Urgency, Reaching for Solutions, Wishful Thinking, Weighing the Choices, Taking a Stand, and Making a Responsible Judgment. In the next few weeks, when voters...

McCain, Graham, Collins, and Snowe. No, it's not a singing group like Crosby, Seals, and Nash. If they were, they would be immediately branded as 'anti-music.' These Republicans are most likely to vote in favor of Cap and Trade. But the good news is that a dozen Democrats have expressed doubts about voting for the bill due to the enormous costs to citizens and our economy.

President Obama can’t speak out in support of Iranian protestors fighting for democracy, but can speak out against Hondurans defending their democracy. Here’s how AmericanThinker.com explains the Honduras situation in one short, but brilliant paragraph. “Imagine that Barack Obama announced that he was going to hold a referendum on legalizing a third term for himself. Imagine that even his attorney general, Eric Holder, advised him that it was illegal. Imagine that the Supreme Court ruled that holding the referendum was unconstitutional. In spite of that, let’s imagine that Obama coerced the FEC into holding the referendum anyway. Then – let’s...

Did dark matter destroy the universe? You might be looking around at the way things "exist" and thinking "No", but we're talking about ancient history. Three hundred million years after the start of the universe, things had finally cooled down enough to form hydrogen atoms out of all the protons and electrons that were zipping around - only to have them all ripped up again around the one billion year mark. Why? Most believe that the first quasars, active galaxies whose central black holes are the cosmic-ray equivalent of a firehose, provided the breakup energy, but some Fermilab scientists have...

Not really a vanity, but a VERY earnest question... Anyone know what the chances are that citizen Sarah Palin might be able to be in the DC area on the week of September 11th? Just a question...this is NOT a rumor...I just think that this is EXACTLY what she is now free to do...

Al Gore on Tuesday compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis. The former vice president said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill by encouraging leaders to unite their nations to fight climate change. He also accused politicians around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid difficult decisions. Speaking at Britain's Oxford University at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by the Times of London, Gore said, "Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to...

"Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine."

President Obama's pleas to the left to stop attacking Democrats has fallen on deaf ears. From the Plumline President Obama may have issued a private demand that groups allied with the White House stop hammering moderate Democratic Senators with health care ads, but those groups have no intention to listen to him. In fact, not only do the groups plan to continue their ads, spokespeople for the groups tell me, but one is actually increasing its buy. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that Obama had privately told Congressional Dems he’s concerned about TV and online campaigns hitting moderate...

Yesterday I gave myself a report card on my predictions from January of 2009 through the end of June 2009 to mark half a year's passing. I was writing today but got side tracked because I couldn't stop thinking about grading Barack Obama after his first semester. As of today, I've officially decided that for the duration of Barack Obama's term I will give him a semester report card as well. So rather than finish what I was working on I spent some time this morning creating a Presidential Report Card from American University. CNC's blog column is a bit...

Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus was arrested this morning and booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center. Andrus turned herself in to Louisiana State Police Detectives at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center around 10 a.m. today. She was booked for two counts of unauthorized use of a moveable and two counts of malfeasance in office, Trooper First Class Mark Dennis, a spokesman for the Louisiana State Police, said in a statement. These charges stem from an investigation that began in January. The charges of unauthorized use of a moveable have to do with the misuse of city funds, Dennis said. Andrus...

Once again I request the prayers of my fellow Freepers. On 7/3/09 my Sister had a seizure.. She had been having intense pain following a fall in April. She had been to the doctors at least twice and many xrays were taken. On 7/4/09 she went to Er.. She has metastatic cancer with her Kidney as her primary source.. It is in her head, her hip and possibly her liver. She is having surgery today in an attempt to relieve her hip pain. She is in God's hands because it appears that what the medico's have to offer her is...

An open records request by Palin-obsessed Alaskan Andree McLeod has uncovered the shocking revelation that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin uses a device known as the “telephone.” Records show that Palin not only uses this device to accept two-way voice communication – known as “calls” – from others, she also uses the “telephone” to, in fact, initiate voice contact with third parties in other locations ...

Sharpton: Jackson made Obama prez By: Andy Barr July 7, 2009 03:21 PM EST Speaking at Michael Jackson’s memorial service Tuesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton gave the entertainer credit for creating an environment in which Barack Obama could be elected president. “It was Michael Jackson that brought blacks and whites and Asians and Latinos together. It was Michael Jackson that made us sing ‘we are the world,’” said Sharpton. “It was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other so later it wasn't strange to us to...

By ROGER SIMON | 7/7/09 4:58 AM EDT Sarah Palin violated several commandments and is now getting roasted by political mandarins and media elites. Photo: AP Sarah Palin is a sinner. She has violated several commandments and thoroughly deserves the savage beating that she is now getting from political mandarins and media elites. If it were not for one simple fact, I would say she was through in politics. And that fact is that if the Republicans were picking a nominee today, they would pick Sarah Palin. No? Don’t believe me? Who would beat her? Tim Pawlenty? Bobby Jindal? Haley...

The vinegar used to garnish salad dressings, pickles and other foods, may live up to its folk reputation as a fat buster and health promoter. Japanese researchers Tomoo Kondo and colleagues noted that vinegar has also been used as a folk medicine since ancient times, for a range of illnesses. Modern research suggests that acetic acid, the main component of vinegar, may help control blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and fat accumulation. Their new study showed that lab mice fed a high-fat diet and given acetic acid developed significantly less body fat (up to 10 percent less) than other mice,...

Michael Jackson 'obsessed with cloning himself' Michael Jackson was obsessed with immortality and the idea of cloning himself, according to his former chauffeur Al Bowman. 07 Jul 2009 The King of Pop reportedly attended a Las Vegas conference on human cloning with longtime friend Uri Geller, according to Mr Bowman. Mr Bowman, who drove the pair to the event in 2002, said Jackson was particularly impressed with a group called the Raelians, who believe the key to eternal life is cloning. Jackson's reaction following the conference, Mr Bowman said: "Jackson was very excited. "He bounced out of that conference like...

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois leads the nation in bank failures this year, though regulators say that is primarily because it has more banks than any other state. The number doubled to 12 with the shutdown of six banks in two days last week. State and federal regulators said the Campbell Group, a family-operated holding company for all six, invested in the kind of risky mortgage-backed securities that brought down much larger financial institutions. All the banks, which were spread from central to northern Illinois, were open Monday with new owners. “They are a family-owned company. Six of their eight banks made...