Free Republic

The group collectively lamented that the Right discovered Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” “It’s kind of scary! They have learned all of the tricks,” said Sue Esty, the assistant director of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Maryland.

It could be all that fresh mountain air. Or maybe it's the altitude, a different time zone or even jet lag. Otherwise there's no excuse for what makes tourists ask the dumbest questions. There are some real gems, and it happens all the time. Just ask the patient and good-natured folks who make a living showing tourists around Banff National Park. "We get a broader range of people (in summer)," says Daymon Miller, general manager of Discover Banff Tours. "They're coming from a broad range of urban centres with generally no concept of the wilderness." When the speak-before-thinking zinger is...

Original in Japanese: グリーン雇用」提唱者、米特別顧問辞任　政権に打撃My translated synopsis: Reporter Mr. Katsuta from Washington reports for Asahi Shimbun news that the one person who asserted "Green Jobs" for the Obama Administration, Mr. Van Jones, has resigned. He was in charge as a special advisor to the President for Environmental Quality....right in the middle of President Obama's declining popularity as being hit on his health care reform policies, comes this resignation. As for the Obama Administration, this development has all the trappings of being a new smack in the face. ....Jones had signed on to a petition questioning the culpability of previous President Bush...

When President Barack Obama's green jobs adviser, Van Jones, submitted his resignation this weekend, he became the first casualty of the Obama administration not to go quietly. Where other departing officials have given explanations about process or used predictable lines about spending more time with their families, Jones released a statement accusing his critics of using "lies and distortions" about him to divert attention from the White House's agenda. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy , opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said. Also breaking with this White...

Is This The Obamacare Future? Overworked Doctors in Australia Worried They Are Killing Patients Australia Courier News/The Lid ^ | 9/6/09 | The Lid Posted on Sunday, September 06, 2009 5:17:36 PM by Shellybenoit Australia has a health care system which is similar in some aspects to what the Democrats are proposing. There is a public plan which covers about 70% of the country and private insurance which covers the rest. In a short time (the system was set up in 1983) the country became divided into one group that gets good medical care (private insurance) and the group whose...

…and its consequences upon sectarian teachings. Folks, OK, so me and my tables. Blame it on a personal idiosyncrasy that favors tabular data organization. But before we go deeper into it, consider this statement: if we were to suddenly lose every single manuscript of the New Testament, we will be able to rebuild it almost word-for-word from the written words of the Fathers of the Church alone. This fact has holds some profound consequences, as we will see further below. But now, the table, the source also being The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict:Early Patristic Quotations of the New...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Marcus Wells and Shirley Walker view their economic prospects from opposite ends of the age spectrum. Wells, 25, was initially optimistic about his prospects for finding a new job after he was laid off as a systems analyst in January in San Jose, Calif. Now unemployment has begun to wear on the him, and he believes his age has factored into his frustration.

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― [Click to zoom.] Click to enlarge 1 of 1 Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., the white supremacist responsible for the 1999 shooting rampage at the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, said he is sorry and has renounced racist views. CBS A white supremacist, who killed a postal worker and wounded five people at a Los Angeles area Jewish community center in a 1999 shooting spree, says he has renounced his racist views. In a letter to a Los Angeles Daily News reporter, Buford O. Furrow Jr. says he regrets the pain he has caused. Furrow, who...

Since the near collapse of Wall Street from the sub-prime mortgage crisis, traders have been jonesing for a return to the adrenaline rush they once enjoyed from the slew of exotic financial instruments cooked up in the dark recesses of special hedge fund units. And according to a piece in the New York Times, they have found it with a ghoulish scheme gambling on death, by repackaging life insurance policies sold for a fraction of their worth by sick and desperate elderly people. Once people die, the investors make money. And it’s much more profitable if you die sooner rather...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association is predicting that U.S. shipments of office furniture will be down by almost one-third this year. The Grand Rapids-based trade organization says on its Web site that shipments are expected to drop 31 percent this year, to $7.7 billion, when compared with 2008. The decline in U.S. shipments is expected to slow to just 1 percent, at $7.6 billion, next year.

MADISON (AP) - A state legislator wants to allow pedal-powered, moving bars on Wisconsin streets and roadways. Forest Junction Republican Alvin Ott says so-called pedal pubs have been a safe tourist attraction elsewhere and should be allowed in Wisconsin. The bar is set on four car tires with patrons seated on either side, each with a set of pedals to power the vehicle. One person steers and brakes, which allows others to pedal, quench their thirst and socialize. Ott says there's interest in starting a pedal pub business in Green Bay with the rolling bars moving around Lambeau Field. Ott's...

At the gravesite of Senator Edward Kennedy on Saturday, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington, shared a private letter that the deceased Senator wrote to the Pope. The Cardinal also read what he described as a response from the Pontiff. This marvelous bit of political theatre (as so much of Senator Kennedy’s funeral was), should not escape attention. That moment in particular revealed a great deal. First of all, it must be recalled that Cardinal McCarrick has a rather unfortunate history involving the delivery of letters, particularly those from a certain Vatican official by the name of Ratzinger....

Now that Jones has resigned, we need to follow through with two critical policy victories. First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions, and second repeal the unspent portion of the stimulus bill, which stands to give them billions. The Jones affair could be an important turning point in the Obama administration if we use it as a window to understand the structure of the left and to stop the huge power-grab now taking place in the name of green jobs. It started July 9, when "FOX & Friends" asked me if I'd come on the show the morning...

NEW YORK (AP) ― The Associated Press is distributing a photo of a Marine fatally wounded in battle, choosing after a period of reflection to make public an image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it. Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, 21, of New Portland, Maine, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. The image shows fellow Marines helping Bernard after he suffered severe leg injuries. He was evacuated to a field hospital where he died on the operating table.

KABUL, Afghanistan — In the days before the disputed presidential election, Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites, where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here. The fake sites, as many as 800, existed only on paper, said a senior Western diplomat in Afghanistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the vote. Local workers reported that hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of votes for Mr. Karzai came from each...

Because that's apparently where you go when you're forced out of the White House. The only difference being that Rumsfeld resigned in dignity, noting that he had obviously lost the confidence of the American people. Van Jones not so much: Van Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, resigned Saturday, following weeks of pressure from the right and a flurry of revelations about his past statements."I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today," Jones said in a statement dated Sept 5 released around midnight on Sept 6. "On...

Have yourself a little getaway after 2 vacations, everyone needs it, I wonder what the carbon footprint on all this is?

State and local governments stood out as safe havens for workers during the recession's early stages. Now even they are laying off employees as officials rush to cut costs and balance budgets. August marked the third straight month that state and local governments shed jobs, reflecting cutbacks prompted by declining income and property taxes. They accounted for the bulk of the 18,000 government jobs lost in August -- the U.S. Postal Service cut about 8,500 jobs as well -- and analysts expect the reductions to continue through much of the year. The widening unemployment rate has a gender gap and...

What's behind Barack's bad picks?

"Be Amazed By All The Incredible Videos From the Tea Party Express Event At Cape Buffalo Grille In Addison Texas" Various videos of the Tea Party Express event on Friday, September 4, 2009 in Addison (Dallas), TX. Lots of interviews with "insurance company paid members of the mob who want to overthrow Obama because they are racists", LOL. Also has songs performed by various entertainers and speakers motivating the audience.